IT companies pledge to connect academia, industry with govt

The information technology sector companies have pledged to work for connecting the country’s academia and IT industry with the government for the betterment of the sector and achieving the government target of exporting $5 billion ICT products by 2025.

They expressed their commitment at the inaugural ceremony of the largest exhibition of information and communication technology (ICT) sector in South Asia, Basis SoftExpo 2023, being held at Bangabandhu Bangladesh China Friendship Exhibition Centre at Purbachal in Dhaka.

With the slogan ‘Welcome to the Smartverse’, the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) is organising the 4-day mega show to highlight the latest technological innovations and ICT capabilities of Bangladesh to the world.

The information technology exhibition aims to highlight the capacity of Bangladesh’s IT sector through various programmes.

Speaker of Bangladesh Parliament Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury inaugurated the exhibition on Thursday morning while Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar and State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak attended the inaugural ceremony as special guests.

Speaking as the chief guest, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhry said, “Our dependence on software is increasing day by day. There is no alternative to software in making Smart Bangladesh.”

She hoped that BASIS members would play an important role in this regard.

“BASIS is working for digitisation of the e-filing and question and answer session of Jatiya Sangsad. Four components – smart citizen, smart society, smart economy and smart government – are important for making Smart Bangladesh. BASIS can also play an important role in this regard. The government would provide all possible assistance in this matter,” she said.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak hoped the expo would play a significant role in promoting the country’s IT sector as well as achieving IT export targets.

He said, “IT has now become one of the important sectors of the country employing about 20 lakh people. The country is now getting export earnings worth $1.4 billion annually from the IT sector. The government and the private sector are working together to increase it to $5 billion by 2025.”

Highlighting the facilities provided by the government to the IT sector, the minister said a 10 per cent cash incentive has been given to promote export. Fixed broadband connection has been provided to 4,500 unions in the country.

BASIS President Russell T Ahmed said this Basis SoftExpo is the largest ever ICT exhibition in the country. Our main objective of this arrangement is to show the potentiality along with the capability of the local ICT institutions.

He said, “We have analysed the global market and found that there is a huge potential for the ICT sector. But there is still much frustration about the relationship between the government and the IT industry and academia. If the IT industry and academia work together with the government, it is possible to increase the export earnings from the sector to $20 billion by 2031.”

“The dream of Digital Bangladesh has come true due to the relentless efforts by the local ICT sector. The government has set a target of incoming $5 billion from ICT exports by 2025. We think, with the joint efforts of the government, industry and academia, our export income will be $20 billion by 2031. We will continue our efforts to realise the dream of Smart Bangladesh,” he added.