Building a modern, smart, prosperous nation

A strong interest shown by different stakeholders in an earlier write-up on the subject has prompted this writer to share further his views about what we should do to enable the software industry of Bangladesh to grow.  To begin with, it is to be noted that independent (or third-party) software industry primarily grows along seven business models. These include:
1) Project-based customised application development, implementation and maintenance services: Most of the Bangladeshi software firms are active in this model. As a matter of fact, global software industry grew following this model in the 60's.
2) Back office of large client, whether corporate or government, to offer software development and maintenance services, usually, long-term, large multi-year contracts: The success of India's software industry is primarily based on this business model - triggered by Y2K. Despite numerous attempts, Bangladesh did not succeed to replicate this model that was explained in the first part of the article [Page 6, The Financial Express, September 21, 2015].
3) Development and commercialisation of software products, whether as service or for selling the licence of application: Microsoft is the role model. Selected software firms of Bangladesh have made limited progress in this model.
4) Captive research and development (r&d) centres of software-intensive product-based companies: Samsung's research & development (R&D) centre in Bangladesh is an example of this model. Software industry of Ireland and Israel developed primarily on this model. A large number of American and European firms have set up development centres in these countries to take advantage of technology superiority of Israel and of European trade advantage of a low-cost European Union (EU) nation, Ireland.
5) Invention and commercialisation of software application development technologies: This model has been the starting-point for the success of Israel's software industry. Many small-scale American and European firms are also working in this model.
6) Back-office of numerous small clients, primarily foreign: Many Bangladeshi software firms have been trying to develop export business following this model. Due to small contract size, high business development cost to contract size ratio, and discontinuity of work-flow are limiting the growth of the industry by pursuing this model.
7) Offering implementation services of best-of-breed business applications: Many Indian firms have embraced this model in the recent past. Large information technology (IT) consulting firms have strong presence in this model. Although foreign firms are doing business following this model in Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi firms are yet to be visibly present in this model.
Historically, our major attempts of software industry development have focused on applying the solution which was needed to succeed in Model 2 -- the success model of India. It was perceived that (i) increase of supply of trained human resources (HR), (ii) reduction of duties on hardware (HW) import and (iii) making software free will attract demand for exporting software development services to the local industry, without having adequate focus on local context and global value-chain of software service trade. As a matter of fact, all these three solutions have rather created constraints to the growth models, pursued by the Bangladeshi software industry.
We need to pay attention on the following issues to enable Bangladeshi software industry to grow in order to take advantage of its exploitable potential:
1. How to increase usages of software & information technology enabled services (ITES) to improve wealth creation as well as facilitation capacities of both public and private sectors of Bangladesh;
2. How to improve software firm-level capacity for accelerating growth in both size and profit to revenue ratio;
3. How to increase the entry of high calibre new firms through R&D investment in universities and setting up of pre-commercial innovation laboratories;
4. How to increase the flow of both talent and investment in the sector;
5. How to integrate local firms to public procurement and help them grow globally competitive;
6. How to improve policy and regulatory framework for higher value-added competition in different economic sectors to reduce cost and increase quality by taking the advantage from locally developed software innovations;
7. How to integrate local firms with global value-chain of software product as well as service trade;
8. How to facilitate human resource (HR) quality improvement through collaboration between industry and academia to do research, innovate and commercialise software innovations resulting in creation of high-paying jobs;
9. How to align the national development programme to take better advantage from software innovation and service globalisation;
10. How to detect, adapt and promote scalable growth model to scale up successes of software business demonstrated  by individuals, firms, products, and markets;
11. How to monitor training requirements, design curricula and promote them to both institutions, firms, individuals, and governments;
12. How to design standards of skill development and provide assessment services;
13. How to offer software testing and quality assurance certifications to software firms and clients, primarily local;
14. How to provide assistance in intangible asset valuation, intellectual property rights (IPRs) and risk capital financing; and
15. How to offer technology development and product innovation services to home-grown local firms.
Instead of just providing training by hiring foreign consultants by spending foreign currency [borrowed from creditors like the World Bank (WB) or Asian Development Bank (ADB)], to create the impression that   software is free by condoning intellectual property rights (IPR) issues and also by awarding public contracts to foreign firms, attention needs to be paid to creating demand for outputs of local firms to ensure that software is perceived as a valuable commodity. Furthermore, R&D capacity has to be developed to support innovations, high-paying career growth paths have to be offered to professionals and risk capital financing has also to be made available.
Otherwise, the software industry will be a lost opportunity to build a prosperous nation -- may be, this is the only opportunity for us to turn our 40 million students into builders of modern, smart Bangladesh.   
The writer is an Activist on Technology, Innovation and related Public Policy. He is Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, North South University, Dhaka. He completed his higher studies in Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/three-decades-review-software-industry-bangladesh-rokon-zaman?
trk=mp-reader-card