Software industry of Bangladesh in International Market Part I

Software industry of Bangladesh in International Market

Software industry in Bangladesh is relatively new in comparison to other business sectors. However, the unlimited potential of the software sector has commended inquisitive interests from all concerned. The impact of global hype of this sector is clearly visible in Bangladesh as well and in the recent years, the local software sector has grown enviably.

The success of the software industry has prompted many relevant associations to evolve to provide focal points for entrepreneurs and foreign investors. The government of Bangladesh has declared the IT sector as ’thrust’ sector. The creation of a separate Ministry for ICT (Ministry of Science and Information and Technology), formulating favorable laws and initiating government software projects are encouraging steps for the local/international investors in the Bangladesh software industry. In addition to the policy development, the government is keeping close interactions with various industry associations. BASIS, BCS, BCC and ISPAB are some of the apex bodies working for the improvement of the software industry in Bangladesh.

Industry profile

According to BASIS survey, there are over 800 registered and ITES companies in Bangladesh. There are another few hundred of small and home-based software ventures doing business for both local and international market.

                       

The software segment is relatively new in the market; however, the segment is showing healthy growth in terms of export earnings. According to Bangladesh Bank sources, export earnings from Software and ITES was 250 US$ million in 2009-10. The software companies in Bangladesh mainly focus on servicing the IT/ITES needs of the local leading sectors like Garments, Banks and Government. At the same time, leveraging the global nature of the software business, the local entrepreneurs are always looking for international opportunities. Thanks to these efforts, Bangladesh now has become one of the most potential outsourcing destinations in the world.

Export

According to the Bangladesh Bank source, export earnings from Software was 27.01 million US$ in the fiscal year 2005-06, registering a high growth of 113 per cent from year (2004-05). The following chart shows the Bangladesh software export earning for year 2006-11.

	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Software export	26.08	24.09	32.91	35.36	45.31
Yearly growth	-3.44%	-4.83%	32.59%	7.44%	28.14%

                           

Top export destinations

Reason for choosing the software sector

The main reason of choosing this sector is that to answer ‘why we need Bangladesh software sector in international market?’ The following reasons are here to answer it.

• The core strengths of Bangladesh software sector is the people. An educated, trainable and young workforce working in this sector possesses the required skill sets to compete in the global scenario.
• Bangladesh enjoys a clear competitive advantage in its software labor force. The leading universities in the country provide world class software courses and each year, various institutions produce about 3,000 IT graduates. In addition to that, a huge number of non-IT graduates are working in the sector as well.
• The work force, especially, has historically strong abilities in mathematical and logical analysis processes. Bangladeshi students have won a number of programming and mathematical competitions globally.
• Bangladesh has been building its infrastructure support for the software industry over the years. There are more than 800 software houses are currently working here.
• The geographical location of the country is suited to reach out to other markets in Asia. India, the leading IT sector in Asia, has moved up in the ladder and is now operating in higher and more complicated levels of software.
• Bangladesh is relatively new as an outsourcing destination. This means many unexplored areas of business are offered. More and more investments are coming in and the industry is experiencing growth. These attractive business prospects are bound to encourage local and international investors in the near future.

These are the reasons that make the question turn into, ‘why not Bangladesh software sector is needed in the international market?’