[gallery td_select_gallery_slide="slide" size="full" ids="44516,44518"] Bangladesh has achieved sustained economic development with steady growth rate of more than six percent annually over the past decade. The government of Bangladesh has declared its Vision 2021 for achieving the Digital Bangladesh. The 7th Five-Year Plan of Bangladesh puts use of ICT as a factor for productivity, good governance and efficient service delivery. ICT industry in Bangladesh is relatively new in comparison to other business sectors in the country. The impact of global hype of the ICT sector is clearly visible in Bangladesh as well. In the recent years, the local ICT sector has grown enviably. With over 3,000 local enterprises operating in hardware, software and ISP segments, the size of Bangladesh ICT industry at present stands at more than $400 million. With the advantage of earlier initiation, the hardware segment dominates the market share while the relatively late entrant, software segment commands about 20% of the total market. The software companies in Bangladesh mainly focus on servicing the IT/ITES needs of the local leading sectors like RMG, banks and government. At the same time, leveraging the global nature of the IT business, the local entrepreneurs are always looking for international opportunities. Bangladesh now has become one of the most potential outsourcing destinations in the world. The essential strengths of Bangladesh ICT sector is the young talented workforce. An educated, trainable and young workforce available for this sector possesses the required skill sets to compete in the global race. The number of IT professionals in Bangladesh, which is estimated 75,000, is growing day by day. The majority of this workforce excels in pure technical tasks such as programming and networking. A picture of available educated young workforce for ICT industry is given below. Digital Bangladesh is an idea that includes the IT use for management, administration and governance to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of society and state. To materialize the idea of Digital Bangladesh, development of countrywide ICT backbone and create pool of expected number of human resources are the basic needs. Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh will become a leader in the ICT sector in the next decade. Telecommunication Telecommunication's growth in Bangladesh is exceptional with 6 companies running successfully with subscribers of more than 120 million. In the 13 years since Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission's establishment, number of mobile subscribers has seen a 150% increase and government revenue has also increased more than proportionately (a staggering 3,000% rise to Tk.10,000 crore equivalent to $1.2 billion). Domestic ICT industry and Software Market The market size of the ICT Industry in Bangladesh is estimated to be around $400 million /year. Out of this the software segment is estimated to be more than $50 million/year. Locally there are over 500 software companies with more than 75,000 knowledgeable workers are operating in the country, mainly catering to the customized software development and maintenance of the market. An encouraging sign is than about 60% of the software companies are involved in Government IT sector projects. It is a positive sign since the government sector is potentially the biggest client for the software industry, with the National IT Policy guidelines of allocating up to 5% of Annual Development Program (ADP), and 2% of revenue budget for ICT. Currently more than 100 companies are exporting software and outsourcing jobs to more than 30 countries of mostly North America and Europe. At least 50 offshore development centers (ODC) and joint ventures started working during last few years in Bangladesh. Government's incentives and initiatives for ICT industry . Exemption of Tax/VAT on computer hardware and software . Installation of Digital Data Centre Network in all Districts and Sub-districts . Establishment of an IT Park near Dhaka-as a world class Hi Tech Park with 231 acres of land with modern facilities (already started basic operations) . Establishment of ICT incubator for the development of software and ICT enable services . Establishment of Bangladesh-Korea Institute of Information and Communication Technology (BKIICT) in collaboration with KOICA. . National ICT policy adopted, and National Broadband Policy also adopted . Establishment of IT village in Mohakhali in Dhaka for government departments . Set up 2,000 computer labs in schools and colleges in 64 districts headquarters and sub-districts . Iconic Achievements of Bangladesh in ICT . In 2014, Bangladesh got the WITSA Global ICT Excellence Award 2014 in the three categories for improving people's life using ICT . In 2015, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received "ICT Sustainable Development Award" from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina also got the South-South Cooperation Visionary Award 2014 by the UN, which was received by her son and ICT Affairs Adviser to Prime Minister Sajeeb Ahmed Wajed. The award was given for contribution of Bangladesh government in advancing Bangladesh towards Digital System and expansion of education. . Bangladesh hosted BPO Summit in December 2015. . A Tech Summit was organized in March 2016 in Dhaka . Bangladesh has been chosen as the WITSA Summit for the year 2021. A new IT investment destination for Saudi entrepreneurs Bangladesh is the next destination for ICT sector investment for Saudi entrepreneurs as it has a pool of very dynamic young talented IT professionals with almost 90% Muslim population. The Government of Bangladesh is offering following incentives for IT High Tech Park in Kaliakoir near Dhaka: . Twelve years tax exemption for Developers . Ten years tax exemption for IT/ITES Companies . Duty free import of capital machineries and other assets . Bonded Warehouse station facilities in HTP/STP . Duty free import of 2 vehicles . 100% ownership for foreign investors . 100 % profit repatriation for foreign investors All interested Saudi businessmen are invited to kindly visit Bangladesh and contact the Embassy in Riyadh at HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]" [email protected] or ICT Division of Bangladesh at HYPERLINK "http://www.ictd.gov.bd" www.ictd.gov.bd for further details. The Embassy and Information and Communication Technology Division of Bangladesh are eagerly waiting to assist Saudi IT companies who would like to explore the enormous potentialities in investment opportunities in High Tech IT Park in Bangladesh.
