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Special Government policies for
IT industry in Bangladesh
Source: EB2000
Courtesy of Atique Rabbani, basis@dhaka.agni.com
Managing Director, The Computers Limited (TCL)
Secretary General, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services
(BASIS)
- IT (Information Technology) declared a
thrust sector
- Government speedily implementing the 45
recommendations of JRC high powered committee for IT industry
- Waiver of all taxes and duties from import
of computer hardware and software thus increasing affordability and
proliferation of PC use in general, a prerequisite for the IT powerhouse
that Bangladesh of 140 million people with more than 30 million Science
graduates wishes to become
- Tax holiday for Software and IT services
companies
- Export over internet or other electronic
media recognized under sales contract or agreement without any need for
any LCs
- Simplified tax free export earning
remittance procedures with 40% retention in foreign currency
- Special funds allocated by government for
extending collateral free loans to IT entrepreneurs
- 100% remittance of profit and capital gains
for foreign investors
- Deregulation of process of acquisition and
use of VSAT to facilitate faster, cheaper and higher bandwidth connection
and to encourage more widespread internet use than that being provided
currently by 20 or so Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
- Telegraph and Telephone Department’s
implementation of DDN (Digital Data Network) as incountry high speed (upto
2 Mbps) surface link in Dhaka and four other major cities of Bangladesh.
- Decision to link to global highway through
submarine cable link by next two years.
- Intellectual Property Rights law approved by
President. Expected to be enacted in the next Parliamentary session.
- Government’s decision for IT village
within Dhaka and High Tech Park on the outskirts of Dhaka on 47 and 264
acres of land respectively already earmarked.
- Government sponsoring marketing missions
abroad to help propagate Bangladesh’s positive image abroad.
- Government very supportive of Private
Sector’s initiative and closely works with industry associations such as
BASIS and BCS.
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