The four-day BASIS SoftExpo 2023 concluded with a demonstration of technological prowess and spontaneous participation of the youth, paving the way for global glory. 204 exhibitors participating in the fair received a demand of Tk120 crore in the four-day fair. Millions of visitors participated in the expo. Taking into account the interest of technology lovers in Purbachal, near the capital Dhaka, the organizers said, not $5 billion by 2025; by 2031, $20 billion in export earnings could come from this sector. However, businessmen want to be equally in the driver’s seat in the government’s policy formulation and implementation. It was informed at the end of the fair that the government is also working on building a three-dimensional coordination.
Meanwhile, ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak was awarded the title of ‘Rockstar’.
Prime Minister’s Investment Adviser Salman F Rahman was the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the 17th edition of BASIS SoftExpo on Sunday night. In his speech, he emphasized building a smart Bangladesh of 2025 and urged the businessmen to determine which policies will have a major impact.
He said, ‘Technology is moving forward. Time is running out. New technology is taking the place of old technology. Therefore, high importance should be given to skill acquisition. This should be done specifically without targeting everyone. If any policy support will have a big impact, you have to find out and inform the government that there will be a fundamental change.’
However, the advice of this successful business advisor is to proceed in small steps instead of large scale. He said that the human resource development has come up. I think it needs to be specifically programmed to crash. But that’s not all, it’s best to find out and train those you will work with. We are saying that these should be done by 2025. But my point is why not by 2023. I want it to start this year. Therefore, by 2023, 100 skilled human resources should be developed in IoT, robotics and cyber security.
The investment adviser said that the human resource development has come up. I think it needs to be specifically programmed to crash. But that’s not all, it’s best to find out and train those you will work with.
That is why he emphasized giving research grants to students and not teachers.
He said, at one time, students were not given any money for research work. That is now being changed. In terms of industry, I think the job of trade body is to support various organizations. BASIS is doing that. I think this will continue as well. Quoting Bangabandhu’s speech, BASIS President Russell T Ahmed said that BASIS cannot be kept in check with these support, I also felt that BASIC cannot be kept in check after seeing this fair.
Speaking as a special guest at the event, ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak said that the ICT advisor has given instructions that the work of the ICT Division will now be to develop software and soft skills, not civil construction. So we have three targets. Coding, problem solving skills have been included in the curriculum from this year. Now we have taken up the challenge of creating 1 million coders from primary schools by 2025. We will create 1 million more programmers at the secondary and higher secondary levels who will work as the workforce of BASIS. In addition to this, we will create 1 million more freelancers in government-private partnership through Blended method.
He also said that with the aim of building Smart Bangladesh, Honorable Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy has created a team work spirit culture from the face-to-face situation between the government and non-governmental organizations. He has developed an entrepreneurial mindset within our government. As a result, the ICT Division and BASIS work together like a family.
In his speech, adding three more things to the government, private institutions and educational institutions, Palak said, if the government formulates a policy, the private sector can get its benefits a hundred times more. For example, if the government had not provided duty-free facilities until 2024, then today’s ICT sector would not have developed so much. Government, with synergy between academia and industry has developed a startup culture that is business friendly and supportive to harness the abundant youth skilled manpower. Also, we will create frontier technology skilled manpower to meet global demand.
BASIS President Russell T Ahmed said in his welcome address that 92 thousand visitors visited SoftExpo till the evening of the fourth day of the Expo. Apart from this, 204 participating companies have already received potential leads of around Tk120 crore locally and globally. It is a milestone even outside Dhaka.
Reiterating the ‘three by three’ formula, he said, “I think the challenge of exporting 5 billion dollars by 2025 is not impossible at all.” Not only 5 billion dollars, by 2031 we can earn 20 billion dollars from this sector. That’s why we have three stakeholders, government, industry and academia, doing three things together. The tasks are – proper research and development of information technology sector, industry branding to highlight our capabilities abroad and creation of skilled manpower to maintain the supply chain.
At the end of the program, the convenor of the expo committee, BASIS Director Ahmadul Haque Babu, gave a vote of thanks.
Earlier, in a discussion moderated by BASIS senior vice-president Samira Zuberi Himika, business leaders emphasized on more business-friendly policies to implement Smart Bangladesh. Chittagong Stock Exchange Chairman Asif Ibrahim, Standard Chartered Bank CEO Nasser Ejaz Bijoy and Fiber@home Chairman Moinul Haq Siddiqui participated in this discussion.
In his speech, Moinul Haque said that software adaptation and utilization should be done in every field of life. And to strengthen wireless technology for uninterrupted connectivity, fiber networks must be given importance. Then we can establish ourselves as a developed nation before 2041.
Pointing out that digitization has become a highway in the last 10 years, he said, now is the time for virtualization and smartness. We need to increase the use of data centers for our data driven society. Get used to cloud banking. There is a lack of trust between financial institutions. BASIS can work this out.
Chittagong Stock Exchange Chairman Asif Ibrahim said, “Sadly, we are nowhere near the bond between industry and academia that we should have.”
“The government has already provided support for the IT sector, but if it provides some other policy support, especially from the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the future of the sector will be brighter. Until NBR is fixed, the business environment of the country will not change,” he added.
Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh Chief Executive Officer Nasser Ejaz Bijoy said that since Bangladesh’s land and resources are limited, the digital economy is very important for Bangladesh. Because the sector can be scalable is an accelerated process. But we haven’t made much progress from the partnership point of view. For this, sandbox should be created as much as possible. Public-private joint ventures should be taken through seed funding to establish new ventures.
The best pavilion in this four-day expo was Flora System. And second and third were Intelligent Machine and Rev Systems. On the other hand in the stall category the first track, e-learning second and third Symphony Software Limited. Also in mini stalls category, the first was Dream Oneline, the second Timexus and the third Ideal Animal Services.