Nations around the world are building IT platforms and promoting their IT industries in order to boost their economy by mobilizing the power of easy access to information. Bangladesh which just got promoted as a middle-income country is no different. With Bangladesh government’s ‘Digital Bangladesh’ vision and having a huge skilled population yet underutilized manpower, Bangladeshi software companies are booming and Bangladesh is becoming the most desired destination for software development in Asia.
As indicated by the government, Bangladesh has traded software worth $800 million (Tk 6,720 crore) in 2017 and The goal was set to export software worth one billion dollars by December 2018 and five billion by 2022. To satisfy this vision, the Government of Bangladesh has taken some major steps to build up the Bangladeshi software companies. Some amazing strides of government which can be featured are,
- IT has been declared as a thrust sector.
- Quick implementation of the recommendations of JRC report (a high powered committee for software export).
- Waiving all taxes and duties from the import of computer hardware and software.
- Hundred percent remittances of profit and capital gains for foreign investors without any approval.
- BTTB’s implementation of DDN service.
- Decision to link Bangladesh to the global highway through submarine cable link etc.
In the Bangladeshi software industry, the vast majority of the income originates from private Bangladeshi software companies and individual activities. There is a major interest for different software made by Bangladeshi software developers in overseas markets. Other than that, different web & mobile applications, billing software, latest technologies like AR VR, block-chain, machine learning, artificial intelligence are likewise sought after.
Besides exporting software, several Bangladeshi software companies are performing well in institution and government level digitalization work and some are performing really well in foreign private sectors. Some Private organizations have just begun to work for setting up IT park and IT villages in Bangladesh. Telcos in Bangladesh are playing one of the real partners as they constructed the Infrastructure of 3G and as of late updated it into 4G that essentially kicked off the web-empowered organizations in Bangladesh. Some investors are foreigners and they are especially intrigued to train Bangladeshi students as IT experts. They have just begun to commission their perspectives. Not only foreign investors but also foreign software consulting agencies are frequently traveling to Bangladesh to meet the local software companies, help them to get more structured with their work and get more offshore projects. Agencies like these basically travel the whole world to find their clients the best software solution provider companies to on board by helping them plan their software outsourcing, find the best outsourcing company and manage their software outsourcing-related issues. These agencies are partnering with Bangladesh government as well to provide support for Bangladesh’s Software Development Companies’ (BSDCs) sales and marketing efforts— in targeted markets.
Consulting agencies from USA, Netherlands, Japan do make frequent visits to Bangladesh to see how big software firms in Bangladesh is growing. Looking into the progress of this industry they are sharing their insights on how this industry can improve their business strategy to get more offshore clients and to grow further. These agencies are playing important roles in the software industry in Bangladesh as they are helping our local companies to use them as channels to get more projects from overseas which is ultimately helping the software industry and the growth of our country.