Bangladesh NEXT. Next IT Destination:
The demographic advantage, the stability and the social developments have set the platform for Bangladesh to emerge as the one of the next large players of global service outsourcing market. As outsourcing costs in traditional countries like China, India and Philippines are rising dramatically and global clients are increasingly looking for diversification of sourcing portfolio, Bangladesh is surely the Next best alternative.
Bangladesh possesses one of the most attractive population demography in the world. This is a country powered by youth. In terms of number of youth population, Bangladesh is among top ten countries of the world and top five within Asia. This unique age demography makes Bangladesh as one of the best attractive country for service outsourcing (ITES/BPO, Software, Call centre etc.).
A significant portion of the youth population is proficient in English. Within the non-speaking developing countries, Bangladesh education system has the 3rd largest number of enrollment in English courses at secondary and higher secondary level. Because of this second-language advantage, the country is surely one of the natural choices for service outsourcing for English speaking North American countries.
Adoption to new digital lifestyle among young generation is very high. The urban youth are quite tech savvy and always keep pace with different modern tech-driven lifestyle updates (e.g. in terms of Facebook users, Bangladesh ranks within top twenty in the world. The country already has over 2 million facebook users).
Over 10 million (around 7 percent of total population) citizens of the country work outside the country (4th highest in the world), in different parts of the world. This has contributed significantly in cross-cultural adaptability skill of the professionals. A significant number of the overseas people are technology professionals. They are working successfully in different leading technology companies at different parts of the world. This technology skilled diaspora can also be instrumental in outsourcing boom (as it has been the case in India).
Within the country, the rapid technological development in recent years has set the tone for significant growth in technology driven service industry. Mobile growth in the country is one of the highest in the developing world. Major technology infrastructure like country-wide fiber connectivity, Wi-Max broadband, 4/5G are being implemented at quick pace.
During last few decades, the country has achieved significant social sector development, particularly in education and health. As recognition of this, Bangladesh has recently won UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Award.
During last decade, Bangladesh economy has emerged as one of the most stable developing economies of Asia. Helped by very strong growth in both export and foreign remittance, the local currency (Taka) is one of the most stable currencies.
Powered by people Over 25,000 IT engineers are working in over 600 software and IT service companies: around 150 of these companies are specialized in serving overseas clients.
Specialized IT Education in Bangladesh is well established at the graduation and post graduation levels. Over 90 universities and 700 colleges across the country offer IT education programs. Every year, over 6,000 IT graduates come out of these universities and colleges.
A large part of these IT graduates also possess global IT vendor certifications (e.g., from Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Sun) on top of their academic degrees.
Excellence of IT workforce from Bangladesh is a well-accepted fact at home and abroad. Over 10,000 IT professionals from Bangladesh are working successfully in various IT companies in USA including Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Sun, Oracle, Texas Instruments, Cisco, Nortel, and Lucent – to name a few.
Bangladesh Government and the IT industry have taken up aggressive plans to scale up the number of IT workforce to meet the increasing demand. The plans include national skills assessment and enhancement programs for IT professionals, increasing the number of yearly IT graduates to 10,000 and development of outsourcing focused specific skill sets.
Government Support to IT outsourcing: Software and IT Services have been declared by the Government as a ‘High Priority’ export sector.
All Software and IT Services companies including those having foreign ownerships have been exempted from Income Tax .
Special government sponsored long-term equity fund and short term working capital financing are offered to IT companies.
Since 1996, Government has been allowing zero/low tariff for computers and other capital goods required for software industry.
Special Hi-Tech and Software Technology Parks are being built by the government to facilitate all the infrastructural supports needed by outsourcing companies.
A Roadmap to transform Bangldesh into ‘Digital Bangldesh’ has also been formed
know more at:Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS)
BSRS Bhaban (5th Floor - West)12 Kawran Bazar
Dhaka -1215,Bangladesh
Phone: +880 2 8151196; 8144708-09
Fax: +880 2 8151197
Email: secretariat@basis.org.bd
Web: http://www.basis.org.bd
http://www.bangladeshnext.com/index.html
http://www.basis.org.bd/catalog/
