Bangladesh has been experiencing favorable economic growth in recent years which can be attributed to the flourishing IT entrepreneurship in the country. Bangladesh has been one of the most popular outsourcing destinations for European countries when it comes to IT enabled services and software development.
The IT industry in Bangladesh is considered to be a very promising sector in its economy. The approximate industry size of the IT sector is USD 250 million and is expected to grow because of the investments coming from both local and foreign institutions.
The rapid growth of IT entrepreneurship in Bangladesh has fostered the creation of more job opportunities in the country. Fresh graduates and young professionals are offered more options for career development in their homeland. Many small and medium IT business ventures are continuously expanding in the country. Also, more and more foreign companies are taking interest in investing in Bangladesh as the country also has a competitive advantage because of its high English proficiency rate. This means that the country must expect an increased demand for workforce to be able to respond to the IT industry’s growing needs.
This positive development also relieves the country from the threat of a possible brain drain. Since more job opportunities are opening in the country, its young and talented workforce need not explore greener pastures overseas. Moreover, these job opportunities promise high quality employment, in that wage rates are higher as compared to other jobs.
In recent years, global companies have strongly considered Bangladesh as their outsourcing destination or back-office location. This has been made possible by the aggressive growth of IT entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. Samsung has started the trend by opening its 18th Research and Development Centre in the country with over 200 engineers deployed onsite. Other global IT companies have already started opening their back-offices in the country.
Aside from the formal outsourcing initiatives in the country, several IT professionals and entrepreneurs have taken informal initiatives in acquiring clients through various online marketing channels. Ventures like these are usually small in size but work orders come in bulk. Work orders include SEO, online marketing, web administration, article writing, web design, mobile application, graphic design, data processing, etc.
While these informal initiatives are small in size, the accumulated income generated by such employment contributes significantly to respond to the daily basic needs of the contractors. However, proper estimation of the overall contribution of such economic activity is not probable as such information is not properly reported in the earnings of IT service export.
Bangladesh’s economy is, no doubt, facing a bright future as its IT sector is continuously experiencing favorable development. IT entrepreneurship in Bangladesh contributes significantly to its economy. Its flourishing trend is bringing about positive changes to the employment landscape of the country.
