The country witnessed six hundred percent export growth in
Information Technology (IT) sector during the last five years,
reports BSS.
Bangladesh Bank sources said that the total amount of IT exports increased from 2.24 Million US dollar in 2000-`01 to 12.68 million US dollar in 2004-`05.
Out of the 12.68 million US dollar, 9.64 million dollar came from
software export and rest of the amount came from data processing and computer consultancy. President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Service (BASIS) Sarwar Alam told BSS that he believed that such growth rate Would continue to prevail in the coming years.
He substantiated his point by saying that there have been a number of joint venture collaboration contacts between some Danish companies and Bangladeshi software firm for exporting software and IT services in European market which will keep the growth rate at present level.
Moreover, ICT Business Promotion Council (IBPC) of the ministry of commerce has opened a much-required marketing office at Silicon Valley in California, USA. Some of the big software companies are in the process of opening up their own marketing office in North America and Europe.
Besides, the local market based companies are focusing on process and quality improvements in line with international requirements and a good number of e-governance and e-commerce based domestic work orders are also expected.
"The recent trends indicate that the industry has certainly reached a take-off stage and in the coming years it is poised for high growth", Sarwar said.
But to get take off, the industry now need more IT skilled
professionals and establishment of institutional credit as per work orders with maximum five percent interest rate, he added.
The government has already made an Equity Entrepreneurship Fund (EEF) for software and agro-based industry but it is only for infrastructure support, not for export purpose, he observed.
The market size of the total ICT industry in the country is estimated to be approximately Taka 1,100 crore per year not including telecom sector.
At present, more then 50 software and IT service companies are exporting this services to 30 countries in the world including USA, Canada, EU countries, Middle East, Japan, Australia, South Africa and some of the South East Asian countries. It is estimated that around 5,500 software professionals are employed in more than 300 registered software farms in the country.
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