Bangladesh’s IT industry may be growing in terms of exports, but product diversification is poor and all-important software development is a negligible part of the industry, the BASIS chief said Sunday.
Export earning from the country’s IT industry rose by about 33 percent to $32.91 million in fiscal 2008-09 over the previous year.
According to Bangladesh Bank figures, export from the sector was worth $24.9 million in 2007-08. The commerce ministry has set an export target of $38 million for the current year.
Most of the earnings, however, came from subsidiary software services and IT-enabled services, Habibullah N Karim, president of Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (BASIS), told a press briefing Sunday.
"Regarding the overall volume [of IT exports], exports of software is negligible".
Karim said poor investment is hindering the growth of the sector, which is the second largest avenue of graduate employment.
"Let alone foreign companies, large-scale local investors are still reluctant to come in this sector," he said.
The BASIS press conference at the city’s Sonargaon Hotel was organised to announce the trade body’s annual event, ‘Soft Expo’, which aims to bring together multinational and local software vendors and ICT companies.
According to a statement by the trade body, the exposition will also create awareness among the local as well as international community about where the country’s IT sector currently stands.
The exposition will start from Feb 10 at the Bangabandhu International Convention Centre.
The 5-day event will also feature an IT job fair, seminars and matchmaking sessions between local and foreign companies’ delegations.
This year’s theme for the BASIS Soft Expo 2010, the eighth of its kind, is ‘Digital Bangladesh in Action’, said BASIS director MA Mubin Khan.
"Digital Bangladesh is not a dream any more, the time has come to take realistic steps to transform the country into a digital one," he said.
The Bangladeshi IT sector exports to nearly about 30 countries, which includes the UK, the USA, Denmark and Japan, according to Khan.
"But our product diversification is very low," he added.
The organisers expect about half a million visitors and over 200 exhibitors from home and abroad to come in the exposition.