Bangladeshi IT industry (software development, and ITES including BPO) is a promising destination of investment. This is evidenced by growing market and recent multinationals’ investments for offshore development hub, young and tech adaptive workforce and government's strong commitment for the sector promotion.
With increasing growth in economy and business the demand for IT products and services are on the rise. Additionally, government is moving towards digitizing processes and is making large investments in such projects.
- 16-30 %
lower operating cost than neighboring countries
Total operating costs in Dhaka is 16-20% lower than Bangalore and 30% lower than Cebu.
Jessore, Rajsahi, Kaliakor have even lower cost of operation
- Most value for money 2.4 Kbps/c
- Competent tech savvy human resources
Bangladesh, where 67.61 % of the population is between 15-65 years and 27.21% is below 14 years is bestowed in this regard, since 1.5 -2 million talented youth is constantly joining the workforce.
155 public and private universities
500,000+ graduates enter the job market every year.
51 public polytechnic technique and 269 private polytechnic institutes
130 universities with specialized IT labs
English is vastly used in professional communication in Bangladesh with majority of the population conversant in English.
Various fully subsidized training programs have been introduced with strong focus on training professionals on emerging technologies – IoT, Block chain, artificial intelligence, Big data and analytics etc.
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Digital Bangladesh is an integral part of the Bangladesh government’s vision for the country.
28 IT & software parks have been approved as part of Digital Bangladesh vision with plan to build IT parks across all 64 districts of the country.
To ensure an investment friendly environment, Government has been updating policies to augment the ease of doing business for prospective investors/partners. Besides the ICT Policy 2018, updated policies include Digital Security Act 2018, RTI, IPR, Broadband, PPP, Alternative Investment. National strategy on Artificial Intelligence 2019-24 has also been drafted and will be released soon.
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Infrastructure, power and tele-communication necessary for growing Bangladeshi IT industry have been rapidly improving over the last few years so that uninterrupted internet connection with low latency and high bandwidth is increasingly available, particularly for the higher value-added segments of ITES/ BPO service.
Increase of installed power generation capacity to 26,114 MW from 15,000MW in 2015 with 99.5% of the population gaining access to electricity by 2021.
Bangladesh has 2,600 Gbps bandwidth capacity from two submarine cables with another 7200 Gbps to be added by 2023.
Bangladesh is the 9th largest mobile market in the world with 128 million internet subscribers and 180 million mobile subscriptions providing base for ITeS enabled products and services. In addition, the first test run of 5G technology in Bangladesh took place in Dhaka and it is expected that 5 G would be available in the country by 2021, and will be available throughout the entire country by 2026.
45+
Daily flights to key IT hubs
5
Domestic airports
3
International airports
| Tax holiday is applicable on software development, nationwide telecommunication transmission network (NTTN), and information technology-enabled services (ITeS) provider's/ operator's income until 30th June 2024.
A 10-year tax holiday is applicable for producers of hardware products such as motherboard, casing, UPS, speaker, sound system, power supplier, USD cable, CCTV, and pen drive.
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| This will be only applicable for companies who will start commercial production from 1 July 2021 to 30 Jun 2030.
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Conditions:
- Has to be registered with BIDA.
- At least 30% value addition (in the factory) is required in the own factory.
- Others.
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| Phased/ partial tax exemption of 5 to 10 years is applicable for industries established between July 1, 2019 till June 30, 2024.
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Eligible Industry:
- Computer hardware.
- Automation and robotics design and/or manufacturing inc. parts/ components thereof.
- Automation and robotics design and/or manufacturing inc. parts/ components thereof.
- Nanotechnology-based products.
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Eligible Industry:
- Paid-up capital of not less than BDT 2 million on the date of the beginning of commercial production.
- 30% of the exempted has to be reinvested in the same or other industrial undertakings within one year.
- Others.
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| 10%
export subsidy is available for the export of Software, ITeS, and hardware.
Locally owned Software, ICT and hardware industries, situated at the high-tech park will get 4% incentives for product and market diversification. 30% value addition is required to avail the incentive.
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| Locally owned Software, ICT and hardware industries, situated at the high-tech park will get 4%
incentives for product and market diversification. 30% value addition is required to avail the incentive.
CBC). |
Industry Association and Supporting Institution
Bangladesh is another attractive place for the multinationals and foreign industries for the establishment of their offshore development hub (for software and application) and captive BPO centers (including call centers).
Opportunities for Bangladeshi youth to acquire advanced and basic IT skills can be extended through private investments to vocational and training institutions specialized in IT engineering, and business management and graphic design. Such investments are deemed valuable, since there could be many potential students interested in working for IT business, and computer engineers intending to equip more advanced skills.
Smaller BPO firms do not have international certifications for IT-related standards (on software development process, internal control over contracted service, information security management). This is because the certification is costly, as local auditors are not readily available for most standards’ certification
Bangladesh is embracing artificial intelligence (AI) for the digitalization of the nation. The government has developed a draft national strategy for artificial intelligence and is providing corporate tax exemption for developers/manufacturers of artificial intelligence-based system design (Income tax Ordinance, 1984 46BB).
