The country's earnings from freelance IT outsourcing are expected to double this calendar year over last year, mainly due to active participation of the young professionals, coupled with cost advantages.
Insiders expect the industry to fetch foreign exchange to tune of $40 million by the end of this year while the amount was $20 million in 2012.
Bangladeshi freelancers are performing assignments from across the globe using some IT marketplaces like oDesk.com, freelancer.com and elance.com. However, their earning rates are lower than those of other countries.
Industry insiders said the average wage of an IT outsourcing sector employee is around $8 an hour in Bangladesh compared to $20 in India and $10 to $15 in the Philippines.
Ministry of Information and Communication Technology Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan said lack of proper training and ample skills were the causes that prevented our freelancers from getting sufficient rates. But this trend is changing gradually.
He mentioned that the country is going ahead in freelance outsourcing due to contribution of the young generation in this promising sector.
Mr Khan informed the FE on Wednesday that "Bangladesh has entrenched its position as third next to India and the Philippines in oDesk, a world renowned outsourcing marketplace, and the growth of the sector is more than 100 per cent."
He said this is an opportunity for our youngsters to get themselves employed with an attractive income, which is not normally possible in a general job. Perfect guidelines, training and financial support are need to promote the sector, he thought.
"The ministry took different initiatives including creation of awareness among the students and young professionals at district level along with skill development programme so that the outsourcing sector grows," he mentioned.
Recently another programme "Learning and Earning" has been taken up under the PKSF (Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation) to help freelance outsourcing trainees with financial support for buying laptops.
Talking about creating freelancers for outsourcing, he said under the programme, they targeted to create around 45 thousand freelancers by next year.
"Our goal is to create freelancers first, then entrepreneurs, to create BPO (Business Processing Outsourcing) industry in the country," he mentioned.
According to a recent Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) estimate, there are some 15,000 freelancers in Bangladesh doing outsourcing work for technology companies from across the globe.
Besides, the country has also some 500 registered IT outsourcing companies, which collectively employ an additional 20,000 workers.
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