Int'l payment gateway services start operation in BD
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Md Jamal Uddin
Bringing the export proceedings of Bangladeshi IT freelancers, worth about US$ 14 million, is getting easier, as various international payment gateway service providers have started their operation in the country, said industry insiders.
They said out of a total of around 18,000 registered freelancers in the country, about 5,000 are actively engaged in IT outsourcing. They receive the payment of their non-physical export earnings mainly through banking channel and different master cards.
BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services) president Mahboob Zaman said now the freelancers are getting the service of 'moneybookers' and 'AlertPay', two international payment gateway service providers.
Recently, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has given permission to Online Payment Gateway Service Providers (OPGSPs) to facilitate repatriation of remittance against small value service exports in non-physical forms, such as data entry/processing, off-shore IT service, and business process outsourcing etc.
Following the BB circular, industry people are trying to bring the gateway operators in the country to ensure smooth transaction of the freelancers' export proceedings, he mentioned.
Mr Zaman said it was their demand to the government since long to remove the money transaction barrier.
Earlier this month, BASIS senior vice president Fahim Mashroor had a meeting with senior executives of 'PayPal', one of the most popular payment gateway service providers across the world, and requested them to launch its operation in the country.
"We have great opportunity to make a good position in the global outsourcing market worth US$400 billion, if we can train our talented workforce with different skills," said Munir Hasan, general secretary of Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN).
He, however, stressed on building adequate IT infrastructure to bag big orders from developed countries.
Mr Hasan, who is involved with the 'Math Olympiad' in the country, told the FE that now freelancers can enjoy convenient transaction of their export earnings following operation of different global payment gateway service providers here.
If people have some competencies, like technical expertise, communication skill, and bargaining ability along with morality, they can start outsourcing. Software developing, website programming, graphic design, data entry and writing are available works for outsourcing, he said.
However, he also urged the would-be IT freelancers to exercise patience, as the way of earning online is not that easy as they might have expected.
Bringing the export proceedings of Bangladeshi IT freelancers, worth about US$ 14 million, is getting easier, as various international payment gateway service providers have started their operation in the country, said industry insiders.
They said out of a total of around 18,000 registered freelancers in the country, about 5,000 are actively engaged in IT outsourcing. They receive the payment of their non-physical export earnings mainly through banking channel and different master cards.
BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services) president Mahboob Zaman said now the freelancers are getting the service of 'moneybookers' and 'AlertPay', two international payment gateway service providers.
Recently, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has given permission to Online Payment Gateway Service Providers (OPGSPs) to facilitate repatriation of remittance against small value service exports in non-physical forms, such as data entry/processing, off-shore IT service, and business process outsourcing etc.
Following the BB circular, industry people are trying to bring the gateway operators in the country to ensure smooth transaction of the freelancers' export proceedings, he mentioned.
Mr Zaman said it was their demand to the government since long to remove the money transaction barrier.
Earlier this month, BASIS senior vice president Fahim Mashroor had a meeting with senior executives of 'PayPal', one of the most popular payment gateway service providers across the world, and requested them to launch its operation in the country.
"We have great opportunity to make a good position in the global outsourcing market worth US$400 billion, if we can train our talented workforce with different skills," said Munir Hasan, general secretary of Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN).
He, however, stressed on building adequate IT infrastructure to bag big orders from developed countries.
Mr Hasan, who is involved with the 'Math Olympiad' in the country, told the FE that now freelancers can enjoy convenient transaction of their export earnings following operation of different global payment gateway service providers here.
If people have some competencies, like technical expertise, communication skill, and bargaining ability along with morality, they can start outsourcing. Software developing, website programming, graphic design, data entry and writing are available works for outsourcing, he said.
However, he also urged the would-be IT freelancers to exercise patience, as the way of earning online is not that easy as they might have expected.