Locally developed software yet to gain ground

Despite offering standard and reasonable pricing, locally developed software are yet to gain popularity among domestic clients, speakers said at a programme on Monday.
They identified unavailability of information among the customers about the capacity of local technology companies as a key reason for such a situation.
They made the observation at a press conference organised at the auditorium of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) in the city in a bid to announce a three-day BASIS SoftExpo 2019.
With the slogan 'Technology for Prosperity', the 15th edition of the three-day event begins today (Tuesday) at International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB).
BASIS will organise the exposition in association with ICT Division.
State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Junaid Ahmed Palak, ICT Secretary NM Ziaul Alam, president of BASIS Syed Almas Kabir, its senior vice president and convener of the event Farhana A Rahman, among others, attended the conference.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Palak said the development of digital Bangladesh largely depends on the success of local technology companies.
"The SoftExpo primarily aims to promote the local technology business," the state minister said, adding that Bangladesh's technology sector has achieved a tremendous growth in recent years.
He also laid emphasis on joint efforts from both the public and private sectors for achieving the desired growth in the sector.
Mr Almas Kabir said one of the key impediments to the growth of the country's ICT sector is widespread use of foreign software by Bangladeshi businesses including banks and financial institutions.
"They (local clients) are using the foreign software at much higher price as they don't know much about the local software developing industry," said the BASIS president.
The SoftExpo aims to promote the local software industry, he added.
Farhana A Rahman briefed the media on various aspects of the event which is said to be largest regional technology congress.
She said there will be 10 separate zones including software service, IT enabled service (ITES), industry 4.0, VAT zone and FinTech in the fair so that a person can visit the fair with ease.
IT experts from other countries including Japan, India and the United States (US) will take part in different discussion sessions.
"Businesses will be able to explore new partnership taking part in business-to-business (B2B) match making session," said Ms Rahman.
According to the organisers, the fair will remain open from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm. Entry is free for all.
Around 250 software developing companies and ITES providers will be taking part in the fair.
Interested visitors can register with the website: http://softexpo.com.bd/visitor-registration-2019/ .
The apex trade body of the country's software developer and ITES businesses, BASIS has also developed a smartphone application (App) titled 'BASIS SOFTEXPO' hosting the details of the event for the first time. The app is available in the Play Store.

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