Staff Correspondent

Speakers at a seminar today said that integrated planning and effective implementation are essential for ICT development in the country.

They also identified that insufficient infrastructure, lack of necessary policy support, complex credit support, lack of access to finance, shortage of skilled manpower and absence of supportive duty and tax structure are some of the issues for which desired development in the information technology sector is not being tapped fully in the country.

They said this while addressing a seminar on "Reform for ICT Industry Growth" organized by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) held at its office today.

Lutfey Siddiqi, Special Envoy on International Affairs to the Chief Adviser, spoke at the seminar as the chief guest while Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), spoke as special guest.

Lutfey said the present government has been 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 bbusiness activities along with rendering citizen services and the current government is giving more priority to these issues," he added.

The Special Envoy said there were a lot of inconsistencies in the central bank's reserve, export statistics and other data, which the current government has taken several initiatives to address. "It's never possible to formulate a proper plan without proper statistics,"

He said the present government has already formed a number of reform commissions, whose activities are continuing, where citizens from all walks of life, as well as representatives from the private sector in particular, can present their proposals.

Executive Chairman, BIDA, Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun said, after the ready-made garment industry, the IT sector has such potential to be the next RMG of Bangladesh.

"It's possible to expand domestic and foreign investment in addition to employment generation, especially for the young population through this sector," he added.

Harun said activities are going on behalf of the BIDA to simplify the permitting process for foreign nationals who are working in the country. He also informed that a relationship officer would be engaged in the front office of BIDA and his job would be to facilitate all related services to the investors from a single desk.

DCCI President Ashraf Ahmed said policy reform, easy access to finance and up-skilling are key to its global market growth for information technology which includes IT services, software and devices worth nearly $3 trillion dollars.

"Our IT industry with nearly $2.5 billion of revenue is present in a small segment only despite having one of the largest pools of IT related workers in the world," he added.

He said the government needs to up-skill the 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.

Ashraf said in order to exploit its potential, it is essential to formulate short-term, mid-term and long-term strategies, proper implementation, investment, coordination between all the stakeholders, and including the public and private sectors.

The software and services export sector has seen an exponential growth, reaching export revenue of around $1 billion in FY 2024, he added. Mir Shahrukh Islam, Managing Director of Bondtein Technologies Ltd. in his keynote paper highlighted that more 2600 IT companies are in operation in Bangladesh employing more than 3,50,000 workers while the market size is more than $2.34 billion.

With a limited scope of software services, Bangladesh does not have any device production capacity, he said. The largest export destination of IT products from Bangladesh is USA worth of $226.8 million.

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. He also proposed to form a steering committee with the participation of stakeholders for the overall development of the sector.

Syed Almas Kabir, former president of BASIS, said tax incentives can be given to encourage the ICT entrepreneurs. He emphasized on increasing the use of sustainable and green information technology.

He opined that the government could introduce Sovereign Credit Guarantee Scheme to provide loans to the IT entrepreneurs on easy terms. Kabir underscored the importance of a Data Privacy Act saying that R&D in this sector should be incentivized.

Taimur Rahman, chief corporate affairs officer of Banglalink Digital Communications Limited, Md Liakot Ali, Additional Managing Director of Walton Digi Tech Industries Limited also spoke.

Senior Vice President Malik Talha Ismail Bari moderated the open discussion session.

DCCI Vice President Md Junaed Ibna Ali, Former Senior Vice President, DCCI MS Shekil Chowdhury, Convenor of ICT Committee of DCCI Rashad Kabir and members of the board of directors were also present at the seminar.