Bangladesh has witnessed 600 percent export growth in the information technology (IT) sector during the last five years.

Local daily The Financial Express reported on Thursday that the total amount of IT exports increased from 2.24 million US dollars in fiscal 2000-01 (July 2000-June 2001) to 12.68 million dollars in fiscal 2004-05.

According to the daily, out of the 12.68 million dollars, 9.64 million dollars came from software export and rest of the amount came from data processing and computer consultancy.

President of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Service (BASIS) Sarwar Alam was quoted as saying that he believed that such a growth rate would continue in the coming years.

He substantiated his point by saying that there had been a number of joint venture cooperation contacts between some Danish companies and Bangladeshi software firms for exporting software and IT services to the European market, which would keep the growth rate at present level.

A number of big software companies are in the process of opening up their own marketing office in North America and Europe, the daily said.

Besides, the local market-based companies are focusing on process and quality improvements in line with international requirements and a good number of e-governance and e-commerce based domestic work orders are also expected.

"The recent trends indicate that the industry has reached a take-off stage and in the coming years it is poised for high growth," Sarwar was quoted as saying.

But to get take-off, the industry now needs more IT-skilled professionals and establishment of institutional credit as per work orders with maximum 5 percent interest, he said.

The market size of the total Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry in the country is estimated to be approximately 11 billion taka (about 169 million US dollars) per year not including the telecom sector.

At present, more then 50 software and IT service companies are exporting their services to 30 countries in the world including the United States, Canada, EU countries, Middle East, Japan, Australia, South Africa and some of the South East Asian countries.

It is estimated that around 5,500 software professionals are employed in more than 300 registered software firms in the country.

Source: Xinhua