Speakers at a seminar on Saturday stressed issues like policy reform, access to finance, up-skilling for targeted growth in the country's emerging ICT sector.
They mentioned that the global market for information technology which includes IT services, software and devices is nearly 3 trillion dollars. Our IT industry with nearly 2.5 billion dollars of revenue is present in a small segment only despite having one of the largest pools of IT related workers in the world. Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) organised the seminar on "Reform for ICT Industry Growth" at the DCCI office Motijheel in the capital.
Special Envoy on International Affairs to the Chief Adviser, Lutfey Siddiqi attended the event as the chief guest.
While addressing, he said the present government is working in a changed environment, which needs to be considered by all. If the existing policies are properly implemented, it will be easier to do business activities along with citizen services and the current government is giving more priority to this issues.
"There were a lot of inconsistencies in our central bank's reserve, export statistics and other data, which the current government has taken several initiatives to address, as it is never possible to formulate a proper plan without proper statistics", he added.
DCCI President Ashraf Ahmed presented keynote paper on the occasion.
He said that we are one of the rarest countries in the world who can field such a large workforce. We need to up-skill our workforce, focus on delivering higher value added services and expand manufacturing capacity across the semiconductor value chain.
"We need to intervene on building expertise in design, assembly packaging and testing (APT) sub segments, and pursue opportunities in integrated device manufacturing (IDM) for the emerging IOT markets", he added.
Addressing as the special guest, Executive Chairman, BIDA, Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun said, after our ready-made garment industry, the IT sector has that potential to be the next RMG of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Bank Executive Director (ICT) Muhammad Zakir Hasan said there is no alternative to integrated planning for the development of the country's IT sector.
He said the infrastructure development here is still not up to the mark, where there is a lot of scope for private sector investment to come forward.
Syed Almas Kabir, former president of BASIS, said tax incentives can be given to encourage the ICT entrepreneurs.
DCCI Vice President Md. Junaed Ibna Ali, Former Senior Vice President, DCCI M S Shekil Chowdhury, Convenor of ICT Committee of DCCI Rashad Kabir and members of the board of directors were also present in the seminar.
