CT promotion project to create 30,000 jobs

[arefin]

The government with support from the World Bank (WB) is implementing a project, which is expecting to create 30,000 direct jobs in Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology-enabled Services (ITES) sectors.

The project – Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance Project – was launched in April 2013, aimed at exploring the potential of creating 120,000 indirect jobs besides the direct employment, the WB said Sunday.

“Studies indicate that Bangladesh possesses significant comparative advantage in the IT and ITES industry due to the availability of a large English-educated talent pool and competitive labor costs.

In addition, the industry possesses particular strengths in niche sub-segments, such as software programming, graphics and animation,” the Bank said.

It said the project will also establish basic e-Government foundations, to support governance reforms and significantly improve the government’s efficiency and effectiveness.

Specifically, the proposed technology foundation will enable all ministries and agencies to host their systems and information on a shared datacenter; exchange information and collaborate using standardized frameworks; and protect data through information security policies and standards.

According to the Bank, there has been progress towards setting up of Project Coordination Unit (PCU) at Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) and with initial activities of the Project.

It is now expected that the Project will move ahead with procurement activities of the priority components within the next quarter.

These priority components are the Expansion of the data center, training for IT/ITES foundational skills, and hiring of the firms on IT/ITES strategy.

BCC will publish the necessary Requests for Expression of Interest for these procurements by July.

The WB also projects that the IT and ITES industry revenue would increase by over USD 200 million by the end of the initiative.

- BSS