The official investiture of the newly elected executive committee of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services-BASIS, the national organization of software and technology service makers, will officially take place on Thursday. The chairman of this committee is Russell T. Ahmed. Before his official take over, he spoke openly with DigiBangla .
While conversing with Executive Editor Imdadul Haque, the implementer of the ‘Champs 21 Vision’ has said that he has taken some steps forward before fulfilling the promise of ‘Every Member Matters’ as aclaimed in the election manifesto.
“The members of BASIS have chosen us out of love,” he said. They have vested the responsibility on us. We want to start our work ensuring goodwill and commitment. The first focus must be on ‘Every Member Matters’. The election slogan is not just a slogan. I bear it to my heart. We believe that members are the power of BASIS.”
That’s why the CEO of Team Creative thinks that there is no such thing as general, mediocre or elite as a member.
He said, “We would be interested to hear about the business friendly environment for the members, their priorities, problems, possibilities.” I will act accordingly. For this we have already started working in an unofficial way. If every member of BASIS can expand the business, everyone from small to medium will have the opportunity to expand the business. As each member gets bigger, the BASIS will get bigger. And the ICT industry will grow bigger. Above all, we will do our best to work with all the members of the 11-member board to make this industry bigger. The organization of traders must be kept in the place of business. There are small traders or medium traders. The BASIS board is not a monopoly of any group. Not for the small, medium or big traders. BASIS is for everyone.”
Although two years is not a big time in fulfilling the dream, the majority of his team on the board thinks that the majority of his team is enough to enhance the image of BASIS by ensuring transparency and accountability.
“We have come through a normal election process,” said Russell T. Ahmed. All the members didn’t vote for us. All those who voted and who didn’t are all BASIS members. We will try to carry out the work with everyone and with the members as we said during the election without any discrimination. We will give the BASIS members a place in the Secretariat where they are treated, accepted and listened to with dignity. At the end of every 100 days, we will face the voters. Two years is not a very long time. If there is goodwill, implementation of the manifesto is possible.
The two-term vice-president and former secretary general of BASIS reiterated the deadline for implementing the five plans within 100 days of taking office.
In his words, to bring 5 tasks to the forefront in 100 days, to hire a CEO for BASIS Secretariat, to set up a professional call center, to have a soft expo by March 2022, to form a committee to make BASIS board more effective and Digital Marketing Research Center for all BASIS members will be set up.
At the same time, the new president of BASIS has announced that he will step down as soon as his term expires. He also said that the plan is to make the members voter-oriented.
‘I think the members of BASIS forgot how to ask to BASIS. By increasing the involvement with BASIS, naturally, there will be no distance. InshAllah, we will keep these issues in mind in the next two years’ elections, so that the members can become voters by subscribing to the government policy or the constitution of BASIS without the complexity of the paper.
In an exclusive interview, The IT sector leader, who served as a secretary-general of the ISP Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) for the 2008-2009 term vowed to protect the interests of the members, by working on extending the tax holiday as a ‘top-ten policy’, reducing the lengthy formula for obtaining income tax certificates and getting 10 percent export incentives within a month as well as meeting the 5 billion dollar revenue target set by the government.
Earlier, BASIS formed the executive committee for the 2022-23 session on December 28, after gaining a majority in the polls on December 26 last year. The committee comprises senior vice-president Samira Zuberi Himika of Giga Tech, vice-president (administration) Abu Daud Khan of EnRout International and vice-president (finance) Fahim Ahmed of Pathao.
Besides, there are 7 directors. They are Habibullah N Karim of Techno Haven, Mushfiqur Rahman of Spectrum Engineering, Mustafizur Rahman Shohel of Advanced ERP, Rashad Kabir of Dream 71 Bangladesh, Tanvir Hossain Khan of Dreammerz Lab, AKM Ahmedul Islam of Technogram and Syed M Kamal country representative of Mastercard Bangladesh.