Software export may miss target

Shamsul Huda | Published: July 02, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Official software-export performance may miss the target in the fiscal year (FY) 2014, after a steady growth of the trade in the knowledge economy in last four years till FY13, sources said.
Currently, the government maintains only the official data of software exports while a vast amount of freelance outsourcing export is not in its book.
According to a freelance outsource entrepreneur who works for world's famous business houses, more than 150 thousand outsourcing exporters are at work across the country.
He said, "I think the earnings of freelancers would more than that of the exporters in official channels."
As per data available from export promotion bureau (EPB) the software-export target for the FY14 was set at $154.45 million. But, as of April, the overall export figure was $92.37 million.
In the FY13, as per official statistics, the export amount was $101.63 million, $70.63 million in the FY12 and it was 45.31 in the FY11.
The above-mentioned data show that since FY11 till FY13, export was had increased at an average 50 percent rate.
But the first ten months' export figure in the FY14 shows that it is likely to miss the target of $154.45 million.
An office bearer in Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (Basis) said he was yet to get the export data for the month of May and June.
"I do not believe the export figure for the months of May and June may fulfil the target, and I think it is inevitable the growth may drop," he said.
Another Basis office bearer said the main cause behind downturn in growth of software export is pre-election unrest.
That time there were problems in communications and many foreigners did not show their interest in providing work orders due to instability, he pointed out.
He said though the official figure of software export till April in the last fiscal (FY14) was $92.37 million, but it could be doubled if the outsourcing amount was taken into account.
Basis former president Fahim Mashroor said apart from freelance export figure, currently a number of ITES (IT- enabled services) product exports go unrecorded due to problem with the coding system in Bangladesh Bank.
Mr Mashroor said if the software-export industry got government's proper support, it could earn $1.0 billion by the year 2015 with the creation of job opportunities for the young IT-educated people.
Another newly elected office bearer said, "We hope the software-export growth would increase in the coming years as Bangladesh is still developing at cheaper prices."
He observed that though the export performance in official channels in the last fiscal could miss the target, this should be temporary.
As local companies are enjoying good track records, certainly export performance would grow.