Govt to groom IT freelancers to become entrepreneurs

State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Junaid Ahmed Polok Monday assured IT freelancers of extending all possible support to groom them as entrepreneurs.
"I am assuring you (freelancers) of all sorts of government support so that you can build yourselves as entrepreneurs through which more members of the young generation could get employed," he said.
His assurance came at a seminar on 'Entrepreneurship Development through Outsourcing' organised by Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Foundation in the city.
Mr Polok was present at the seminar as chief guest where member, executive committee of SME Foundation Luna Samsuddoha, IT expert Mostafa Zabbar, Bangladesh Computer Society president Md Mahfujul Islam, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) president Shamim Ahsan and IT specialist Md. Zakaria Swapon were present, among others.
SME Foundation Managing Director Dr Syed M Ehsanul Karim presided over the programme.
"This is only profession through which our huge number of educated young human resources can get employed and earn millions in foreign currency every year. So the government will to do everything possible and extend necessary support to the IT freelancers if they want to become entrepreneurs," the state minister said.
Speakers at the seminar said that there are vast opportunities of getting jobs abroad for the local freelancers which can be utilised through helping them become entrepreneurs.
"The country has a lot of freelancers, those who are capable to run businesses, but for lack of sufficient knowledge and capital they do not dare to venture for any kind of business. If the government in association with the private sector comes forward to help them then the country would be able to earn a substantial amount of foreign currency soon," Mr Ahsan said.
He said there was a time for us to do business with physical labour. But the concept has changed. Country's young generations are at the moment more educated than before. They can now earn higher amount of money through utilising their talents.
"So we have to utilise this opportunity. We the BASIS members are trying to provide all sorts of support to these experts so that they can make themselves worthy of working in the international arena. But without government support it is not possible to make each of them an entrepreneur," he added.
Dr Islam said the country is passing a transitional period-now the country need to do business based on information technology.
"So we need to provide support to the IT professionals for a sustainable growth," he said.
Dr Karim said the foundation every year arranges entrepreneurship competition where IT experts can take part and if it is found as an innovative idea then the foundation will provide support to the entrepreneurs.