The Dhaka Times Desk The newly elected Executive Council (2024-2026) of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) was formally anointed with the oath to achieve self-sufficiency and establish sovereignty of indigenous software in the information technology sector to implement Smart Bangladesh.
BASIS founding president A Touhid administered the oath to the newly elected executive council at the event organized at Radisson Blu Hotel in the capital on Monday.
Prime Minister's Advisor on Private Industries and Investment Salman F Rahman was present as the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony. State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam (Titu) were present as special guests, and FBCCI President Md. Mahbubul Alam was present as the guest of honour.
Besides, former president of BASIS Sarwar Alam, Rafiqul Islam Rawli, members of outgoing executive council, members of former executive committee, representatives of member companies, officials of various embassies assigned to Bangladesh were present in the event.
BASIS President Russell T Ahmed, Senior Vice President M Rashidul Hasan, Vice President (Administration) Syed Mohammad Kamal, Vice President (Finance) Iqbal Ahmed Fakhrul Hasan, newly elected BASIS Directors Md. Mostafizur Rahman Sohel, Didarul Alam, M. Asif Rahman, Dr. Muhammad Risalat Siddique, Mir Shah Rukh Islam, Biplab Ghosh Rahul and Syed Abdullah Zayed.
As Russell T Ahmed was re-elected as BASIS President, outgoing Vice-President (Administration) Abu Dawood Khan and Vice-President (Finance) Fahim Ahmed handed over the BASIS flag to him at the ceremony. Later, the guests gave felicitation gifts to the outgoing Executive Council, BASIS Selection Board and Appeal Board Chairman and members for their contribution.
Samira Zuberi Himika, the outgoing senior vice-president of BASIS, delivered the welcome address on the occasion. BASIS President Russell T Ahmed said, 'We have noticed a number of inconsistencies in the NBR regarding tax exemptions in the IT sector. According to them, the IT sector makes a profit of 5 thousand crore rupees and the revenue of this industry is 50 thousand crore rupees. But the total turnover of this sector is two thousand crores.
Once this anomaly is removed, we think the IMF will lose interest in taxing this industry. In this case, considering the potential of this sector, we are demanding tax exemption till 2031.
He also said, 'ICT will be the nucleus for the implementation of Smart Bangladesh. To achieve this goal by achieving self-sufficiency in the local market and moving towards the 5 billion dollar target, we feel that the government should set a target of self-sufficiency in the IT sector by 2041 through a policy. In this case, considering the capabilities of Bangladesh's technology institutions, foreign institutions should not be used for public and private procurement. In cases where we are dependent on foreign institutions and in which technology we are developing, a domestic institution should be made mandatory as a local partner. If you do these two things
At the same time it will help us in building skilled manpower. Besides, foreign direct investment and local investment will be interested and will earn huge foreign currency by exporting abroad to meet the needs of the country.'
FBCCI President Md. Mahbubul Alam said that the information technology sector is one of the most important drivers of Bangladesh's economy. The role of this sector is immense in the implementation of Smart Bangladesh. The newly elected Executive Council of BASIS is expected to play an important role in the development of the domestic software industry, achieving self-sufficiency. State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam (Titu) said, considering the country's information technology sector seriously, we have helped its expansion in the international market and will continue to support it in the future. Surely the information technology sector of Bangladesh will one day become a big sector like the garment sector. The IT sector has developed with the combined efforts of all and I hope that will continue. We Ministry of Commerce has taken the initiative to become completely paperless.
Within the next one year, the Ministry of Commerce will be completely paperless. In other words, if you have the necessary documents to open a company, you can get all the certificates at home.
Minister of State for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak said, "We want to increase the employment of nearly 3 lakh youth to 10 lakh in 2,500 IT service providers and software development companies of BASIS." The current government has established the IT sector of the country.
We want to increase the export earnings of this sector to 5 billion dollars by 2029. Our IT sector is growing and so are the possibilities. We have requested the Honorable Prime Minister to request tax exemption for another 5 years in this promising ICT sector. Now we have to be interested in making the youth skilled in things like startups, machine learning, blockchain, artificial intelligence and moving the country towards a technology-based economy, in addition to software development.
In the chief guest's speech, Prime Minister's Private Investment Adviser Salman F. Rahman gave a positive indication that the tax holiday facility in the information technology sector of the country will remain in force this year as well. He said, I had an opportunity to talk to the Prime Minister about the issue of tax exemption. The Prime Minister assured consideration of the proposal in view of the request to impose taxes consistently and rationally in different periods. This time the budget will inform how long the tax exemption can be.
He also said, you have to be vocal about what kind of policy support is needed for the domestic information technology sector to keep pace with the pace at which the world's technology is advancing. While tax exemptions are important, what kind of policy do you need for the next level? AI, block chain, big data need to be looked at. Because programmers will lose the most jobs in the future. So now they have to train to the next level. The government should be guided in this matter from the basis.
Note that on May 8, 2024, the executive council election for the 2024-2026 term of BASIS was held. Later, an executive council consisting of 11 members was formed. News bulletins.
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