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Bangladesh needs hard decision on software |
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News |
March 31, 2000
Inordinate delay in the enactment of and intellectual property rights (IPR) law in the removal of the other infrastructure obstacles is hindering the export of computer software from Bangladesh, informed source say.
The promising computer software and data processing industry might suffer a serious setback as result, and the nation might fall further behind others in the race to benefit from the sector that has great potentials, experts say.
India fetched five billion US dollars from the export software in last one year ending in April. Bangladesh also has the potentials to hit the billion figure in the near future from software export if the industry is properly nursed, industry sources said. At present export earning from the sector n negligible.
In the absence of an IPR law international buyers are not willing to purchase software from Bangladesh, because anybody could copy those. Without the protection of IP right no foreign company would place orders for software from local firms, they say.
The infrastructure obstacle include the non-streamlining of telecommunications facilities for speedy data processing, reception and transmission.
Source say, while the data processing, reception and transmission capacity of the telecommunication network through eight exchanges have upgraded, their benefits are not reaching users for non-fixation of tariff rates. V-sat operation on the other hand are paying more compared to their counterparts in other countries.
Against this backdrop the move to enact an updated copyright law, drafted through years of trial and error, is progressing at a snail's pace to the disappointment of potential investors in the sector.
A draft bill on the proposed legislation designed to update the Copyright Ordinance of 1962 with provisions to meet the demand of the information technology sector, awaits introduction in Parliament.
The bill, sent to the Parliament Secretariat by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs late last year, has been further enriched through the incorporation of some amendments suggested by President Justice Shabuddin Ahmed. The bill was supposed to be introduced during the last session, source said.
SM Kamal, President, Bangladesh Software and Information Services Association, told The Independent that the Copyright bill should be introduced in Parliament and passed on an urgent basis for boosting the software industry.
The Export Promotion Bureau is planning to send a team to the US to promote software exports from Bangladesh. These efforts, however, would not lead to the desired results unless a legal framework for the protection of intellectual property rights was created, and infrastructure development for speedy data processing, reception and transmission remained neglected, he said.
About infrastructure facilities, experts say, the Bangles Telegraphs ad Telephones Board (BTTB) has introduced DDN (Digital Data Network) communications facilities that would be available from five telephone exchange in Dhaka city and from three other exchange outside the metropolis.
An inter-ministerial meeting held at the Ministry of Finance late last month had decided that tariff for DDN facilities would be fixed at a competitive rate by March 15, but nothing has been done so far.
The inter-ministerial meeting has decided to ensure flexibility in the use of V-sat. According to the decision, any firm could take V-sat connection from any operator by paying an annul license fee of US$ 3,500 to the BTTB. After the payment of license to provide Internet service, the meeting resolved.
Finance Minister SAMS Kibria who was in the chair also informed the meeting that software exporters from now onward would from permission to retain 40 percent to their foreign exchange earnings in foreign currency, and spend the money in keeping with Bangladesh Bank rules.
Representatives of the private sector who attended the meeting thanked the Finance Minister for the disclosure and said that this would be an incentive to software exporters.
Non-implementation of the decisions taken at the meeting has surprised the leading firms engaged in software development and data processing, sources added.
Source: The Independent
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