Bangladesh exports software and ICT-related products to more than 80 countries, including developed nations, around the globe, said Syed Almas Kabir, president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).

The country earned approximately USD 800 million from its ICT industry in FY2017-18, he noted.

The export destinations of these products are different European, African and Southeast Asian countries, he said.

He lauded the government for taking several initiatives like infrastructure development and building of high-tech parks across the country.

He said more students are now graduating in computer science than ever before and coming to contribute to this sector. “Currently, three to four lakh people are working in this sector. Our target is to

export USD 1.5–2 billion worth of software- and ICT-related products by 2019,” he added.             

Kabir also said proper policy support, provision of soft loan with lower interest rates and capacity building of skilled manpower would help this sector to increase its export earning by three times in the next couple of years.

Reve Systems Ltd, one such exporter of ITC-related products, started its operation in 2003. The company has been dominating the local IT market with its exclusive products since then.

Waliur Rashid Tamal, assistant manager of Reve Systems, told The Independent that Reve products are exported to 78 countries, including the US, the UK, Russia and Hong Kong, around the world.  “We've started to export Reve antivirus to countries like India and Nepal,” he said.    

Tamal said that the company's  ‘Secure Communication App’ is a highly secure, uninterrupted, reliable and customised platform that has been especially designed for business enterprises.

Citing an example, Tamal said that the app helps ensure real-time business communication and collaboration. It creates a virtual office platform where team members can interact seamlessly with each other irrespective of their locations. This app would be useful for banking and

financial institutions, government agencies, insurance and risk management, hospitality and travel, legal industries and the healthcare sector, he noted.

Md Jhair, business development executive of DataSoft, told The Independent that DataSoft exports software to Japan, the UK, Netherlands, India and Nepal at present.

DataSoft is building 10,000 smart homes at Tokyo, Japan, with its ‘Intelligent Home and Office System’, he said.           

He explained that this system has four features—security and ease of Access, personalised and customised settings for your home appliances, real-time home monitoring, and autonomous environment setup learning. He said the security and ease of access feature provides a keyless access to the owner and any of his/her guests.

Asked about the opportunity, he said: “The local software market is still untapped and thus we have ample opportunity to explore and saturate the entire market.”

Elaborating the challenges in this sector, Jhair said: “There are a couple of challenges that we have to overcome. We still don’t have a sufficient number of research labs and software training institutes Besides, we have to face unaffordable Internet prices."

DataSoft has its own research lab, where complex issues like the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and artificial intelligence are regularly handled, he added.