IT can open door to manpower export

Let's take the instance of the voter list and national identity card project। A voter sits in front of a computer. His fingerprint, signature and picture are taken in a computer. Then the software is doing the rest automatically. The voter's personal information is sent to a specific place where the data is being preserved. Since made and preserved by software, it will be possible to prevent illegal use or misuse of the person's identity card. The task of the voter list and the national ID project is going on in full swing. Two Bangladeshi companies have developed the database software being used in this gigantic project.

According to IT experts, software is a set of serially placed programme's in computer's language aiming to resolve problems, which activates the hardware by creating a relation between computer hardware and user। Due to the influence of suitable software, the computer becomes mathematically intelligent. System software and application software are made as products meaning software has an unlimited commercial utility.

Computer Usage Corporation (CUG), a US-based organisation, began software use in 1955 as a service-providing sector. Then this has become the fast changing sector. People have gradually become dependent on it. Everything, from I-pod to laptop and computers to businesses, is run by software.

New software is being used in many ways like bringing newness in business, atomising offices and industries, and producing different products. With software, information is readily available everywhere. It has been possible to time-consuming works in a short time. So, the software industry is expanding very fast. Though challenging, this new industry is creating various types of employment's too.

There is a bright prospect for Bangladesh in this software industry. By virtue of this flourishing industry, the country too is forwarding to e-commerce-based economy keeping pace with the world. Lakhs of unemployed youths are getting opportunity to work both at home and abroad.

Manual Islam, 30, is one of them. After his graduation in software programming from India's Pune University, Manual is now working as an assistant director in Development and Research Network, a private organisation.

Nurul Absar also works in the same organization as web application developer. Though working in software section now, his field of study at university was different. He completed master's in statistics from Sylhet Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Later, he had a post-graduate diploma in information technology from the same university. "Software is now such an industry where self-employment is possible after necessary training. This is why employment is rapidly expanding in this industry," says Absar.

According to a recent joint research by Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), software is the most promising export sector in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) is a leading IT organisation as it has been working since 1997 for its development. As of June 2007, the number of BASIS members was 245.

On the present state of Bangladesh's software industry, BASIS programme manager Shariar Shams says, "At present, there are over 4,500 registered software companies in the country where about 5,000 professionals are working। Besides, from June 2006 to May 2007, 1,839 job advertisements have been published in newspapers and on the Internet. This figure is 7 percent higher than June 2005 to May 2006.

He also says the demand for Bangladeshi software has increased significantly. A huge quantity of quality software is being produced in the country. The demand for software in the local market is worth over Tk 300 crore. About the performance of BASIS, Shams says his organisation regularly exports software to 30 countries. In the first eight months of2006-2007 fiscal, BASIS exported software worth about Tk 2 crore that is about 26 percent higher compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Bangladesh Economic Survey-2007 states the country is exporting software and IT enabled services to 30 countries, including the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia and different European states. Over 50 software firms and IT companies are involved in the export प्रोसेस

The survey also says some of the organisations that use Bangladeshi software are Nokia, Japan Airlines, the World Bank, US Postal and US Agriculture Department. An ICT incubator centre has been established in Dhaka city's Karwan Bazar for flourishing the software industry. Currently, 48 organisations are working at the centre. From this incubator, an amount of Tk 4.27 crore was earned in the last two years through export.

A Commerce Ministry reports on 'Export of Computer Software from Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects' says there are many positive aspects of Bangladesh's software। Every year, a huge number of students are receiving degrees and training on computer-related subjects from different government and private universities. Many Bangladeshi students are also studying abroad. Besides, IT -educated manpower is available in Bangladesh at much lower cost than the developed countries and even neighbouring India.

There are also many problems in the software industry of the country. Saqibul Hasan, an engineer of ICT research-related firm Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, says, "In our country, it's not being possible to create enough manpower for lack of IT institutions. This is the main problem. Besides, lack of information is another aspect. For instance, many people with the highest degrees in Computer Science don't even know that software can be made sitting at home. There are many works available on line for professionally skilled software developers."

Enamul Haque, project manager of Daffodil Software Ltd, points out another problem the industry is now facing। "Software industry is electricity dependent. But, we never get uninterrupted power supply. For this, software developers face problem in delivering the orders. It also affects the efforts to create skilled manpower in the IT sector."

BASIS executive director TIM Nurul Kabir says despite many problems, Bangladesh's software sector is moving ahead contributing to the national development. About the prospects of software industry in Bangladesh, eminent economist Dr Atiur Rahman says, "This sector will create huge employment opportunities. It will be possible to export trained manpower meeting local demand."

According to experts, the main problems that are hindering development of the industry include absence of duty-free facility in case of software export-import, problems relating to necessary infrastmcture and marketing, reluctance of government offices in using software, lack of IT-based educational institutions, inadequacy of teachers and labs, lack of planning and government support, reluctance of banks to provide loans and absence of software-related laws.

If the existing problems could be resolved, this export-oriented industry can open up a new horizon of prospects for national development

source=http://nation.ittefaq.com/