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He also emphasised on more public-private initiatives to innovate new products and services as well as develop the skills of workers in order to expand the market abroad.

“Local software and software services which are being successfully used in the country need to be taken to other parts of the world to materialise the vision of digital Bangladesh,” Kabir said while underscoring the need for government assistance to expand the domestic software market beyond the country’s borders.

In her speech, BASIS Senior Vice President Farhana A Rahman emphasised on developing skills in pace with the advancement of technology.

She said the BASIS Outsourcing Award particularly aims to recognise those who work in remote areas and also help freelancers become entrepreneurs.

However, Rajiv Hassan, chief product officer of Selise, said it is difficult to get the payments for outsourced work as there is a cap on the amount of funds that can be transferred through existing channels.

This is because the country lacks international payment systems such as PayPal but if we can remove this barrier, then outsourcing could increase,” Hasan said.

In response, State Minister Palak said work is ongoing to bring PayPal’s services to Bangladesh.

SM Kamal, a former BASIS president; Shoeb Ahmed Masud, vice-president (admin); Mushfiqur Rahman, vice-president (finance); and SM Iqbal Hossain, managing director of Bank Asia, were present at the event. Bank Asia was the Platinum Sponsor of the programme while MasterCard, IBPC and LICT were in overall collaboration.