Digital World-2015 to highlight BPO

A mega event on ICT 'Digital World-2015' will be held at BICC from Feb 9 to 12 highlighting Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak disclosed the development in a press conference at Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) auditorium Tuesday.

Access to Information (A2I) programme under Prime Minister's office and BCC are supporting the event.

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB), Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB), Bangladesh Association of Call Centre and Outsourcing (BACCO), Bangladesh ICT Journalist Forum (BIJF), Bangladesh Women in Technology ( BWIT) and CTO Forum are the partners of this event.

State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak said,"Like previous year, we will make this event a complete success with the help of various trade bodies.

“In last year's event, we highlighted the progress we made in digitising various sectors, potential of our software sector and 'Business to Business(B2B)' matchmaking,” he said.

“This year we will include all these things and also highlight the BPO. Keeping in mind the young population of Bangladesh, we attach importance to this sector. Bangladesh is ranked fifth in the world in BPO. We have set our goal to employ 50,000 people in this sector in the next five years."

He said ordinary people's demand was at the core of the government’s activities. “We set up digital centre at the union level to respect the prime minister's desire."

He also said the ITU award and 'Public Sector Excellence in ICT' award were recognition of the government's efforts to build a digital Bangladesh.

Palak mentioned that a Silicon Valley company Fenox VC would invest $200 million in Bangladeshi company Priyo.com.

He also said he would organise a ministerial conference and a social 'adda' before the mega event to get ideas on how to make a digital Bangladesh a reality.

BCC Executive Director Ashraful Islam said," A2I programme has been playing a leading role in making a digital Bangladesh. We are prioritising the areas that serve the need of ordinary people."

BASIS Acting President Russel T Ahmed said, "In last year's event, we had soft expo, e-governance expo and mobile innovation expo. We will retain them this year.

“In addition, this year we will have e-commerce and BPO forum, women IT forum and children forum. Like the previous year, there will be Business to Business (B2B) matchmaking session for ICT entrepreneurs."

Replying to a question on previous year's event expenditure and its transparency, the BASIS chief said total budget for the last year's event was Tk 90 million, of which the government contributed Tk 70 million and private sector Tk 20 million.

All the BASIS members that took part in the event paid money for their stalls. For spending government money, they followed the Public Procurement Rule (PPR) and for the rest of the spending, they followed open tendering process, he added.

He trashed accusations that there had been several participants only on paper in the Digital Expo-2014.

The state minister reiterated that transparency was a must in this kind of event.

ICT secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder, A2I Programme Director Kabir Bin Anwar, DG of ICT Division Jashim Uddin Ahmed and leaders of various trade bodies were present at the press conference.