Software export earning likely to rise by 30% in 2011-12 DHAKA, Dec 10 (BSS) - Bangladesh expects to earn 30 percent more foreign currency through software export compared to the amount the sector fetched last year as ICT is growing in line with the government's Vision 2021, officials and ICT business sources said.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) officials said Bangladesh earned around US$ 45 million through software export last year in official channel but the amount could be as high as $100 million as the outsourcing through freelancing was not included in the official data.
"BASIS expects the amount to increase by some 30 percent this year (2011)," vice president of the apex body of ICT business Fahim Mashroor told BSS.
BASIS officials said the country now exports different kinds of software and ICT enabled services for different programmes including cell phone applications, data entry, graphic and web design to 23 destinations abroad with the United States, Japan, Denmark and Netherlands being the major recipient countries.
"Out of our 467 members, 150 are directly involved in software exports," BASIS president Mahboob Zaman said.
At the same time, the country secures a strong position globally as an outsourcing country with Odesk, a leading global platform of ICT business through outsourcing, registering
Bangladesh in the fourth position in the list of nations offering the outsourced services after the Philippines, China and India.
Mashroor, also the chief executive officer of bdjobs.com, said currently some 10,000 young IT experts were offering the ICT
services as freelancers and many of them monthly earn as high as
$10,000 working at their homes and offices.
"But lack of internet speed remained to be major barrier . .
.high speed internet connectivity and ICT infrastructure is
mandatory for the expansion of the sector," he said.
Earlier this year, Bangladesh was named as one of the world's
best 30 IT outsourcing destination by ICT watchdog Gartner.
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