Policy soon to tap mobile app business: Tawfiq

Prime Minister's (PM) Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury gave Friday assurance that the government would formulate a policy soon for simplifying the payment system to pave the way for Bangladeshi mobile app developers to register with various app stores like Google and Nokia, reports BSS.
The assurance came when the mobile app developers attending the final round of training programme at the boot camp set up at Dhaka University (DU) Senate Bhaban raised a point that they are failing to register with various app stores including Google and Nokia due to lack of policy to give payment to the app stores against sale of their developed apps.
"We will try to formulate a policy soon to simplify the payment system for selling of mobile apps of Bangladeshi developers through  various app stores," Mr Chowdhury said.
He said that he would personally take initiative to sit with Bangladesh Bank Governor and ICT Division Secretary next week to resolve the issue.
Mr Chowdhury called upon the application (app) developers to utilise their potential and tap business from the global mobile app market.
"Bangladesh has young educated talent pool who are capable of securing business from the billion dollar app market if they were provided with necessary training," he said.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division Secretary Md Nazrul Islam Khan who chaired the inaugural function said that the government was developing 70,000 freelancers across the country with a target to build IT industrialists.
"Our next move is to develop a significant number of freelancers as entrepreneurs and then as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) professionals," he said adding finally the BPO will be developed as IT industrialists.
Over 400 youngsters of Dhaka Division who had received five-day trainings took one-day training at the Boot Camp organised by the National Mobile Application Development Awareness and Capacity Building Programme (NMADACBP) of ICT Division.
The function was addressed, among others, by Vice-chancellor of DU Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, Leveraging ICT project director Md Rezaul Karim, Communication Consultant of Leveraging ICT project Ajit Kumar Sarkar and Project Director of NMADACBP Dr Md Abul Hasan.