COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s exports grew 6 percent in the first four months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, despite global economic pressures caused by conflicts in the Middle East, a senior Export Development Board official said Sunday.

Export Development Board (EDB) Chairman Mangala Wijesinghe said the current trend could help Sri Lanka exceed last year’s export revenue, which was the highest in the country’s history.

Wijesinghe said service exports now account for about 22 percent of Sri Lanka’s total export revenue.

Sri Lanka earned more than 3 billion U.S. dollars from service exports in 2025. In the first four months of this year, service exports reached a record 1.28 billion U.S. dollars, up nearly 10.5 percent from the same period last year, he said.

He said the information technology sector had shown particularly strong growth.

Wijesinghe said the EDB had spent the past 10 months preparing the National Export Development Plan (NEDP) in consultation with stakeholders. The plan identifies information technology and logistics as two key service sectors that Sri Lanka must develop further.

He said increasing IT export earnings from about 2 billion U.S. dollars to more than 5 billion dollars would create many jobs and bring more foreign exchange into the country.

Shipbuilding, ship repair and logistics also offer major opportunities, Wijesinghe said. Given Sri Lanka’s geographic location, the country can earn substantially more foreign exchange if it develops these sectors quickly and strategically.

Under the NEDP, Sri Lanka has identified several priority sectors. Wijesinghe said the country must strengthen its existing major export sectors while developing new areas to diversify products, expand markets and reach more countries.