The global market for information technology, including information technology services, software and hardware, is about US$3 trillion. Despite having the largest IT population in the world, Bangladesh's income is only $2.5 billion (250 crore).
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) President Ashraf Ahmed gave this information in the seminar titled 'Necessary Reforms for the Growth of Information Technology Sector'.
This seminar was organized at the DCCI office in the capital on Saturday.
Chief Adviser's Special Envoy for International Affairs Lutfe Siddiqui was the chief guest at the seminar. Chowdhury Ashiq Mahmud Bin Haroon, Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) was the special guest.
Mir Shahrukh Islam, Managing Director (MD) of Bondstein Technologies Limited presented the keynote at the seminar.
DCCI President Ashraf Ahmed, in his opening speech at the seminar, further said that besides enhancing the skills of our employees in this sector, we need to focus on higher value added services and expand production capacity in the semiconductor value chain. Also to take effective initiatives in enhancing our skills in product design, assembly packaging and testing (APT) etc. He opined that integrated device manufacturing (IDM) opportunities can be pursued for the emerging IoT market.
The President of Dhaka Chamber said that in order to utilize this potential, it is necessary to formulate short-term, medium-term and long-term integrated plans, proper implementation, strategic investment, coordination between all partners including the public and private sectors.
In the seminar, Lutfe Siddiqui said that the present government is working in a changed situation, it is necessary to consider it. If the existing policies are properly implemented, the business activities along with the civic services will be easier and the current government is giving more priority to this matter.
Chowdhury Ashiq Mahmud bin Haroon said, after our ready-made garment industry, the information technology sector is very promising, where the expansion of domestic and foreign investment is possible especially in the employment of the young population.
In the original article, Mir Shahrukh Islam said that more than 2,600 IT companies are working in Bangladesh, which has created employment opportunities for more than 350,000 people. The market size of this sector is 2.34 billion US dollars. He said that currently 450 Bangladeshi companies are exporting their products abroad. He said, Bangladesh does not have device manufacturing capacity with limited scope of software services.
Bangladesh Bank Executive Director (ICT) Mohammad Zakir Hasan said that there is no alternative to integrated planning for the development of the country's information technology sector.
