State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak expressed his interest to undergo more joint ventures with the Korea International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) so that, Bangladeshi IT companies can explore and expand their business in South Korea and vice versa.
Speaking as a special guest at the 30th-anniversary celebrations of KOICA held at a hotel in the capital on Thursday evening, the state minister highlighted the various opportunities and strengths of the technology sector of Bangladesh.
He said, Bangladesh is a young nation, with 50 percent of the population under the age of 25. We have 150 Universities from where half a million graduates enter the workforce every year. This digital-savvy youth are entering the IT and IT-enabled service industries in a different capacity – as IT professionals, freelancers, and even as startup founders.
According to Oxford Internet Institute, Bangladesh provides 16% of the global online workforce, or approximately 600 thousand, making Bangladesh the second largest source of the digital workforce. The IT and IT Enabled Services industry in Bangladesh has also grown significantly in the last decade, the industry turned from a mere 30 million us dollars export in 2008 to a billion US dollars export by 2019, with a 5 billion dollar export target by 2025.
“The ICT sector in Bangladesh is one of the largest and fastest-growing technology markets in South and Southeast Asia.” Palak further said,” there are no restrictions on the amount of foreign investment in almost every sector of the economy. As a high-priority export sector, all software and IT service companies are getting tax exemption on software, ITES, and ICT hardware exports till 2024. It is also enjoying long-term equity funds and short-term working capital finance from the government”.
As The Republic of Korea is a trusted friend to Digital Bangladesh and is moving forward to embrace the future of technology together, he recalled the “Bangladesh Korea Institute of Information and Communication Technology (BKIICT)”, an international-standard ICT training institute established with the financial and technological support of Korea. We have developed the e-Government master-plan for Digital Bangladesh in partnership with KOICA utilizing Korea’s experience in establishing e-Government. The “Digital Island Moheshkhali” project implemented by ICT Division and Korea Telecom and IOM connected the Upazila of Cox’s Bazar to high-speed internet, education and training, mobile health care, access to information, solar electricity and e-commerce.
The BanglaGovNet Project implemented with a soft loan from EDCF and Korea EXIM Bank has connected all the Government entities throughout the country under a single Network. “Ideathon” is another successful joint ICT initiative by Bangladesh and South Korea. Aiming to increase the knowledge and skills of startups in Bangladesh and South Korea, last year we jointly organized the Startup Exchange Program.”
Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology, invited Korean university students, startups and IT companies to participate in the two international events to participate in WCIT 2021, which will be held from July 2 to 4 and in the second week of November.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change was the chief guest at the function presided over by Manjur Hossain, President of Korea Bangladesh Alumni Association.
Among others, Ambassador of Korea Lee Jang Gun, Country Director of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Miss Young Ado, Director and Secretary of the Department of Economic Relations Fatema Yasmin Virtually spoke on the occasion
