Bangladesh’s software exports have seen over 24% rise to $114.90 million in the first 11 months of fiscal 2013-14 as compared to the same period of previous fiscal, thanks to internet backup system.
In July-May of the fiscal year 2012-13, Bangladesh earned $92.50 million exporting computer services.
In May 2014, the export earnings from computer services were $8.8 million, which were $6.93 million in May last year, according to preliminary estimate of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
“Export earnings from the computer services rose as Bangladesh has made its position in the global IT map. It helped the country to get more work orders,” Syed Almas Kabir, senior vice president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He said the country has been able to get internet backup system last year, which was not there in the previous year, and it worked as a catalyst to get more jobs.
Lack of infrastructure and skilled manpower are the big challenges for the IT industry while high prices of internet bandwidth is another barrier in the way of boosting the information technology sector.
BASIS has taken up a five-year project to train around one crore people to meet the demands on rise as the country lacks skilled manpower, said Kabir. On the other hand, the government also has taken programme to train 30,000 people for the sector, he added.
Industry insiders said Japan investors have recently visited Bangladesh and showed keen interest to place work orders here.
Bangladesh will be the next target for IT outsourcing destination by the global investors while we are going to connect with SEA-ME-WE 5, which would enable Bangladesh to work real time, said Kabir.
On March 8, the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) inked an agreement for the construction and maintenance of the cable with 14 foreign companies to get connected with the submarine cable SEA-ME-WE-5 by the first quarter of 2016.
EPB officials said the export figures would be higher if the earnings by freelancers are recorded as export earnings, which is most of the cases are calculated as remittance. Currently, there are over 1.5 lakh freelancers in the country.
According to a rough estimate of BASIS, around 2.5 lakh workers are engaged in the sector.
The main destinations of Bangladeshi software products are the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, India and Japan.
The government has set an export target of $154.45 million for the fiscal year-2013-14.
In the FY2012-13, the industry earned $101.63m from exports, registering 43.53% growth from the previous fiscal.