The BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) sector in Bangladesh has set a target of creating 200,000 jobs each year within 2021, says Prime Minister’s ICT Adviser Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy.
He expects export earnings from the ICT sector to exceed $1 billion within the term of the present government ending in 2018.
Joy made the projection at the inauguration of BPO Summit 2016 at the Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka on Thursday.
“We will not be able to do well internationally unless we firm up the domestic market. Our local BPO establishments must start their branding exercise abroad,” he said.
This year’s summit, themed ‘Domestic Experience, Global Business’, aims at projecting available local skills in the light of domestic experience.
Referring to the government’s direct backing of the BPO sector, Joy said the ICT Division had taken up a project to create 40,000 technocrats in view of Bangladesh’s growing annual demand for manpower in this sphere.
He said 10 IT training centres would be opened throughout Bangladesh to train people for employment in this industry.
Each year, the country produces about 10,000 computer science graduates, many of whom were working in working in companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, he added.
“Digital Bangladesh is no longer a dream,” he said, citing a plethora of services now available on mobile phones.
“The country has 60 million internet users, and there is 100 percent telecommunication network at present,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son said.
According to him, Bangladesh was second among the South Asian countries in terms of the socio-economic development index.
“Bangladesh will attain the status of a high middle-come country by 2021. The ICT sector must play an important role to help achieve this target,” the prime minister’s adviser said.
Joy said e-textbooks would soon be available while PDF versions of school textbooks were already in circulation alongside printed ones.
State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, who was also present, said BPOs had to be strengthened in the domestic market if the country were to shine in international trade.
The BPO sector has recorded a 100 percent growth. “We have earned $180 million from BPOs. We expect this sector to fetch $1 billion of the $5 billion the ICT sector is expected to earn in 2021.”
The country’s readymade garment industry accounts for $28 billion of Bangladesh’s total export earnings of $32 billion.
The BPO sector began rolling in 2009 with only 300 employees. The number has risen to 30,000 at present, Palak said.
Source: bdnews24
