The Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) honoured 99 people and companies for their outstanding achievement in outsourced IT services on Saturday.
BASIS presented 20 awards at the company level and 79 at the individual level in seven categories during the seventh edition of its flagship event, the BASIS Outsourcing Award.
From more than 1,400 applicants, winners were chosen through a step-by-step screening process, said press release.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister of the information and communication technology division, attended the programme as chief guest.
Five awards were given in the "Outsourcing Company" category, five in the "Startup" category, and ten in the "Export Excellence" category at the company level.
Individual awards were given to 63 people from 63 districts, with six women winning in the women's category and ten people becoming the top national outsourcers.
For the first time, an individual with special needs was also honoured in the individual category.
At the programme, BASIS President Syed Almas Kabir said the government has set a target to earn $5 billion in export revenue from the software and IT sector by 2025.
According to Kabir, the government's 10 per cent cash incentive on money earned in the sector should be enhanced to 20 per cent in order to meet this goal.
He also emphasised the importance of greater public-private partnerships to develop new products and services and improve worker skills in order to expand the market internationally.
To realize the vision of a digital Bangladesh, local software and software services that are successfully used in the country must be exported to other parts of the world, said Kabir, who also stressed the need for government assistance to expand the domestic software market beyond Bangladesh's borders.
Farhana A Rahman, BASIS senior vice president, stressed the importance of acquiring skills that keep up with technological advancements in her remarks.
The BASIS Outsourcing Award, she added, is designed to honor those who labor in remote locations while also assisting freelancers in becoming businesses.
