IT software exports are on the rise
Saturday, 25 August 2012
Shamsul Huda
Export of Bangladeshi software is set to record a significant rise as in the July-April period of the last fiscal year (FY 2011-12) there was a 54 per cent growth in its export compared to that of the same period of the FY 2010-2011.
According to data available from the Bangladesh Bank, Bangladeshi software developing companies exported products worth US$ 56.7 million in the first ten months of the FY 2011-2012. In the corresponding period of FY 2010-2011 the value of total export stood at $ 45.31 million.
Though the data for the rest two months of the last fiscal is yet to be available, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), the country's IT (information technology) trade body, expects that the export of IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) is set to hit $ 70 million mark for the FY 2011-12.
BASIS President AKM Fahim Mashroor said if all the exports of freelance exporters and BASIS members are taken into account the total export in the current fiscal (FY 2012-13) would cross $ 100 million.
He said at present a number of ITES exports remain unrecorded due to problems with the coding system of the Bangladesh Bank, along with the exports of freelancers who earn around $ 25 million.
The BASIS president said earnings by the freelancers are recorded as remittance not as software export.
He said with the government's proper support the country's software export is likely to hit $ 1.0 billion by 2015 and the sector may create job opportunities for around 100,000 graduates.
BASIS Secretary General Russell T Ahmed said Bangladesh essentially gets small or mid-level commissions which are not of much interest to the neighbouring countries.
"But we are doing excellent job, delivering the best-quality work and on time. Progressively people are relying on us", he said.
A leading BASIS exporter said, "We are following the 'Search Engine Optimisation' model so that big companies in the West can find our work through web surfing and it is helping us in getting more work".
Former BASIS president Mahbub Zaman said this industry is yet to reach the $ 1.0 billion mark whereas it was supposed to bring export earnings like ready-made garments.
He said the sector has not been able to flourish at the optimum level due to lack of trained professional IT graduates, government's adequate support and big corporate houses' confidence in local software developers.
Many big corporate financial institutions and some other big companies are still using foreign software in their organisations.
If they use local software, it can create confidence among the investors and the IT professionals would work for local market that would also be helpful for export performance, Mr Zaman said.
Export of Bangladeshi software is set to record a significant rise as in the July-April period of the last fiscal year (FY 2011-12) there was a 54 per cent growth in its export compared to that of the same period of the FY 2010-2011.
According to data available from the Bangladesh Bank, Bangladeshi software developing companies exported products worth US$ 56.7 million in the first ten months of the FY 2011-2012. In the corresponding period of FY 2010-2011 the value of total export stood at $ 45.31 million.
Though the data for the rest two months of the last fiscal is yet to be available, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), the country's IT (information technology) trade body, expects that the export of IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) is set to hit $ 70 million mark for the FY 2011-12.
BASIS President AKM Fahim Mashroor said if all the exports of freelance exporters and BASIS members are taken into account the total export in the current fiscal (FY 2012-13) would cross $ 100 million.
He said at present a number of ITES exports remain unrecorded due to problems with the coding system of the Bangladesh Bank, along with the exports of freelancers who earn around $ 25 million.
The BASIS president said earnings by the freelancers are recorded as remittance not as software export.
He said with the government's proper support the country's software export is likely to hit $ 1.0 billion by 2015 and the sector may create job opportunities for around 100,000 graduates.
BASIS Secretary General Russell T Ahmed said Bangladesh essentially gets small or mid-level commissions which are not of much interest to the neighbouring countries.
"But we are doing excellent job, delivering the best-quality work and on time. Progressively people are relying on us", he said.
A leading BASIS exporter said, "We are following the 'Search Engine Optimisation' model so that big companies in the West can find our work through web surfing and it is helping us in getting more work".
Former BASIS president Mahbub Zaman said this industry is yet to reach the $ 1.0 billion mark whereas it was supposed to bring export earnings like ready-made garments.
He said the sector has not been able to flourish at the optimum level due to lack of trained professional IT graduates, government's adequate support and big corporate houses' confidence in local software developers.
Many big corporate financial institutions and some other big companies are still using foreign software in their organisations.
If they use local software, it can create confidence among the investors and the IT professionals would work for local market that would also be helpful for export performance, Mr Zaman said.