ICT sector set to welcome Japanese investment

The country is ready to open the door for Japanese ICT entrepreneurs and investors in the IT-enabled services industry which will be a win-win for both countries.

Bangladesh has emerged as a competent outsourcing destination globally for IT/ITES, thus turning out to occupy the 2nd place in providing ICT outsourcing services.

Speakers observed all these on Thursday at a webinar hosted by Bangladesh Association of Software and Information (BASIS) in association with Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO).

BASIS senior vice-president Farhana A Rahman addressed the event as a keynote speaker on Bangladesh-Japan IT/ITES Industry Fraternity: Tapping Trade and Investment Opportunities.

In her speech, Farhana said: “Some fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to the Japanese ICT entrepreneurs and investors by the Japan government would accelerate the process of making their investments in Bangladesh as Japanese investors are investing in the ASEAN countries.”

She observed that Bangladesh rejoices time-tested, strong economic and diplomatic relationship with Japan since February 1972 which was strengthened by the efforts of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Since then Japan has been the single largest bilateral development partner of Bangladesh.

As part of the ICT industry fraternity that Japan and Bangladesh enjoy, BASIS had also observed Japan Day in SoftExpo 2019 and continuously been attending the Japan IT Week since 2015.

The webinar was attended by representatives from around 100 top Japanese companies of the ICT domain to understand the trade and investment potentials in the Bangladesh ICT sector.

Farhana mentioned that Bangladesh has emerged to be a competent outsourcing destination globally for IT/ITES, thus becoming the 2nd in providing ICT outsourcing services such as image processing, customer supports, software development, business processing and management outsourcing, including non-verbal BPO, telemedicine, medical transcribing, customised website development and mobile application development.

She added that the core strength of Bangladesh’s ICT sector in product and technology areas is now thriving in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data warehousing and analysis, Edu-Tech, Distributed Ledger development, Augmented and Virtual Realities, and solutions to Mobile Financial Services, E-commerce, Apps and Web customization.

While delivering his speech, BJIT Representative Yasuhiro Akashi said Bangladesh could be equally seen as the Next China and Next India from the Japanese IT/ITES investors and offshore development partners as Bangladesh is simultaneously oriented to English and Japanese languages, offering available human resources at a very competitive rate that makes Bangladesh unique compared to Vietnam, Philippines, Latin America and Myanmar.

In his closing remarks, JETRO Country Representative Yuji Ando wished that JETRO and BASIS would look forward to working together to take the ties between Japan and Bangladesh ICT sectors to the next level.