IT industry is relatively a new industry in Bangladesh economy, however it is one of the fast

growing industry contributing significantly in the national income. It is also playing a very
important role in creating high quality employment for a sizable portion of young population of
the country. During 1990s the IT industry in Bangladesh was primarily a hardware industry with
little or no value addition. Since 1996, BTTB started granting licenses to private sector ISPs
which resulted in higher internet usage all over the country. In 1998, BASIS was formed to
promote the interest of IT business. In the subsequent years, more liberal government policies
led to a rapid expansion of IT industry in Bangladesh.
In 2010, Gartner, one of the most respected global consulting groups, included Bangladesh in
the list of top 30 IT outsourcing destinations of the world. This recognition created a positive
impression on the capability of Bangladesh IT industry in the international market. In late 2010,
Samsung, the global leader in consumer electronics industry, opened up its high-end R&D
center in Bangladesh and currently it has more than 400 engineers. Apart from Samsung, the
other major players in the Bangladesh IT Industry includes GPIT (Accenture), Reve Systems,
Graphic People, NewsCred, BJIT, Grameen Solutions, Tiger IT etc. Global IT companies like:
AMD, LG and IBM are currently thinking of setting up their back-oce R&D or support centers
in Bangladesh.
There are over 1000 registered IT companies in Bangladesh employing over 70,000 IT
professionals and the estimated total IT industry size is around $400 million including export in
year 2012-13. More than 200 IT companies export their IT related products and services to the
international market. The total IT export amount is about $101.63 million in year 2012-13 which
is 40% higher than the previous year. The top IT export destination countries are: USA 68%, UK
32%, Canada 20% and Australia 18%. In addition to the registered IT companies, thousands of
independent freelancers are also offering their IT services through online market places like:
Odesk, Elance, Freelancer etc.
Among the IT companies, more than 75% are involved in customized application development
and maintenance, 50% are dedicated to IT enabled services, and 45% offer E-commerce/Web
services. The major products include ERP, Accounting and HR software, Sales Automation,
Inventory Management system, Graphics design etc.
The major strength in the IT industry for Bangladesh is its abundant young, energetic and
talented workforce with relatively low labor cost. The major weaknesses are: lack of IT
education, lack of application of copyright laws, poor infrastructure, internet connectivity and
also power shortages. Bangladesh government, with the help of private sectors, should take
necessary steps to overcome these challenges as early as possible to follow its roadmap
towards Vision 2021: Digital Bangladesh. Despite various local and global challenges, the
spirited young generation of Bangladesh have done remarkably well in building sustainable
business organizations through their hard work and passion and surely they are the main
driving force of Bangladesh IT industry.