The newly elected Executive Council (2024-2026) of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) was formally inaugurated with the oath to achieve self-sufficiency and establish sovereignty of indigenous software in the ICT sector to implement Smart Bangladesh.

A Towhid, founder president of BASIS, administered the oath to the newly elected executive council at an event held at Hotel Radisson Blu in the capital.
Various distinguished guests, including Salman F Rahman, MP, and adviser to the Prime Minister on Private Industry and Investment, State Ministers for Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology, and Commerce, along with representatives from BASIS member companies and foreign embassies in Bangladesh, were present at the ceremony.
As Russell T Ahmed was re-elected as the president of BASIS, outgoing Vice-President (Admin) Abu Daud Khan and Vice President (Finance) Fahim Ahmed handed over the BASIS flag to him at the ceremony.

Samira Zuberi Himika, the outgoing senior vice-president of BASIS, delivered the welcome address on the occasion.
State Minister for Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, “BASIS’s 2,500 ICT service providers and software development companies have created employment for around three lakh youth, we want to increase it to ten lakh.”

“We want to increase the export earnings of this sector to US$5 billion by 2029. Our IT sector is growing and so are the possibilities. We have requested the prime minister for  tax exemption for another five 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.”

State Minister for Commerce Ahasanul Islam Titu, said, “Considering the country’s ICT sector seriously, we have helped its expansion in the international market and will continue to support it in the future. Of course, the ICT sector of Bangladesh will one day become a big sector like the garment sector.”
In the speech Salman F Rahman gave a positive indication that the tax holiday facility in the ICT sector of the country will remain in force this year as well.