BY now Information Technology (IT) is a subject of widespread interest among the young Bangladeshi entrepreneurs, but due to lack of prudent policy support on the government part, this sector has been encountering many obstacles in attaining its desired expectation. A national English daily on Tuesday said, progress in IT sector is slow due to a lack of policy support from the government. It further said that the government seemingly listens to the suggestions put forward by the IT business insiders, but hardly acts on those.
Bangladesh could earn around $1 billion in exports per year from IT initiatives within a decade if it goes on the right track. Experts identified three obstacles that block the IT growth and need to be addressed immediately. Those are human resources, inadequate infrastructure and policy support. Besides, as the local entrepreneurs did not initially concentrate on e-commerce, the sector is now being dominated by foreign companies. As the government policy is not supportive enough to inspire the local entities, the IT sector is now suffering from shortage of skilled human resources. To give a push to the indigenous efforts in IT sector, the government should invest in the IT industry and purchase local software. Many countries have policies to bind businesses to use local software. But Bangladesh has no policy in this regard. Even the government institutions do not use local software.
Another important issue that should not be undermined is to engage all stakeholders to cover a wide range of service demands beyond IT expertise. The IT training must include talented manpower from music, journalism, publishing, screenwriting, filmmaking, acting, photojournalism, cosmetics, editing, event planning, and a host of events to meet global demands as it grows beyond limits in different sectors.
The most challenging factor for IT sector growth is appropriate development of IT infrastructure, language skills and data management and protection to intellectual property rights. Slow and unreliable Internet connections must be replaced by high speed IT infrastructure. On top of it all, 24×7 hour’s non-stop power supply must be ensured.
Money transaction in web-based businesses is still considered to be a big trouble while dealing with international service windows. The central bank should provide the necessary guideline to this effect to all commercial banks to put in place a standard practice of receiving the service fees. It may also offer wage earners benefits to freelancers in this case, experts opined.
Bangladesh foreign missions can also play a significant role in expanding IT contacts by exploring markets abroad. We have high calibre IT professionals who are competing with India, Pakistan and some East European nations retaining their position while expanding the market steadily. The private sector and the government must work in close cooperation to provide support to the IT professionals and entrepreneurs to expedite the expected growth of this industry to enable it to be a job creator and foreign exchange earner.
