Indian IT giants urged to invest in Bangladesh
Kolkata: Bangladesh on Saturday called upon the Indian IT giants and businessmen to invest in its ICT sector availing of a lucrative incentive package on offer for foreign investors.
“The government offers an attractive incentive package, including tax exemption up to 2024 and 100 percent profit repatriation for the foreign investors for investing in its IT Parks,” said ICT Secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder.
He came up with the remarks while making a power-point titled ‘Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets: The Digital Bangladesh Story’ at a session on the concluding day of the three-day Infocom 2016 held at the Swissotel, Kolkata.
Shyam Sunder highlighted the progress in implementing the government’s various initiatives undertaken in light of building Digital Bangladesh, and said a magnificent development has taken place in the infrastructure, human resources, e-government and service delivery sectors to boost the ICT sector.
He said the government is building 12 IT Parks across the country while the work on ‘Sheikh Hasina Software Technology Park’ in Jessore is almost complete. “Twelve companies, including two of Japan, have sought to get registered to invest in the park.”
The ICT Secretary said the implementation of Bangabandhu Hi-Tech Park on 332 acres of land at Kaliakoir, the outskirt of capital Dhaka, is progressing fast. “The government has signed agreements with Al Razi Group of Saudi Arabia, a Korean and a Sri Lankan firm for investment at the Bangabandhu Hi-Tech Park.”
Shyam Sunder said Bangladesh’s ICT export sector saw a robust growth since Bangladesh started journey towards Digital Bangladesh in January 2009.
The ICT export was only 26 million US dollars in December 2009 while it increased to 700 million US dollars in 2016, he added.
Shyam Sunder said Bangladesh has a targeted to enhance ICT export up to 5 billion by 2021 and IT professionals up to 2 million during the same period.
Ananda Bazar Patrika (ABP) Group of Publication organised the 3-day event, one of the largest congregations of ICT professionals, buyers-sellers, corporate leaders, academics, visionaries and policymakers of different countries.
The event brought together over 100 speakers and more than 400 corporates from across the globe who talked about various issues like Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data Analytics, Data Management, Data Centre and Cyber Security threats.