IT industry making noise for tax sops in India to ease pain

BANGALORE, India: India's flagship information technology industry is seeking a dose of government benevolence in the federal budget Friday as it grapples with multiple uncertainties.

The industry wants the government to prolong a 10-year income tax waiver on the exports of software makers and outsourcing firms, and ease service and fringe-benefit taxes, said the country's top technology grouping Nasscom.

The tax holiday has been a key factor in the growth of the Indian IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, whose revenues are seen growing by more than 33 per cent to 64 billion dollars in the year ending March 31.

Its looming end next year threatens to blunt the competitive edge of small IT firms that are unable to make investment plans because they are unsure about the tax implications they face, Nasscom president Som Mittal said.

"Encouraged by the success of our business model, countries like China have started offering tax incentives and other sops to IT companies," Mittal said ion February 26.

"It is important to extend the tax holiday so that Indian companies remain competitive," he said. Extending the tax exemption a year before it lapses would reassure firms that they could proceed with investment and hiring plans.

Export-oriented special economic zones that are now cropping up in India offer a five-year, 100-per cent tax holiday, but small companies can't either find or afford space in the enclaves, according to Mittal.

India's IT sector, which has 1.6 million employees, has led the economic charge to annual growth of nine per cent and was perceived to have become resilient enough not to need tax breaks beyond next year.

But a clamor for prolonging the tax incentive, under the so-called Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) plan, has grown louder as the industry transits through painful times.

GB/28th February,2008

Software via the internet offers a cost-effective alternative to licensing

Buying software through a conventional licensing agreement can be expensive and restrictive but, as Paul Stevens reports, a new generation of web-native software can be hosted remotely and accessed via a browser, with cost-effective payments made on a monthly per-user basis.

DOS, Windows and Apple Macintosh software applications used to be distributed on floppy discs then, as technology moved on, CD-Roms took over. More recently, with broadband internet connections becoming commonplace, direct downloads have been more widely used. But in all three cases, the software had to be installed on a local computer or a server situated in the same building as the user(s).

Thanks to high-speed internet connections, however, users can now work with software that is hosted remotely and accessed via a web browser. Email is often accessed online in this way, and the word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications offered by Google are popular, as they offer many of the same functions as the conventional software packages that are installed locally. This type of remotely hosted software application is known as software as a service (SaaS).

The general concept of remotely hosted software is not new; application service provider (ASP) software started to gain in popularity, though this was essentially conventional software with a front-end added to enable it to be hosted by a third-party provider. While this offered some advantages for users, performance was often poor and software updates were no more frequent than conventional ‘shrink-wrapped’ software that is installed locally.

In contrast, today’s generation of SaaS applications are written to be web-native so offer good performance and far better updates. For example, bug fixes and software upgrades can be implemented on a daily basis if necessary.

User benefits
From the user’s point of view, there are a number of additional advantages. One of the most obvious is the pricing structure. Conventional software applications require a heavy investment at the outset and, depending on the application, ongoing maintenance payments. Even packages such as office software, which do not require maintenance payments, are not the ‘buy once’ product that they may appear; upgrades to operating systems, and the original software house’s withdrawal of support, often mean that users have little option but to upgrade the software or reinvest with an alternative from another supplier. With SaaS, there is just a simple monthly fee to pay, often based on the number of users, but sometimes with additional charges for bandwidth or disk storage space, and maybe a set-up fee as well. Moreover, if a company does decide to switch suppliers, the logistics are easier and there is no large up-front investment required to buy a new set of software licenses.

If the software is hosted remotely, the user’s IT maintenance can be simplified significantly. Upgrades are easier to manage because they do not require any in-house effort, and it is very easy to add more users.

SaaS suppliers today usually implement a multi-tenant architecture in which a single instance of the software is used concurrently by multiple customers, but with customers' data kept separate. To avoid any one customer overwhelming the system, a load-balanced arrangement of multiple instances of the software can be implemented.

While the technology is fully capable of providing the service, some companies have been reluctant to adopt the SaaS model for their IT needs. In the past computer hardware and software have been viewed as part of the corporate strategic advantage, but today companies are realising that bespoke software is seldom used, so the business advantage stems from the use of the software within a broader business process, together with the valuable data that is generated and stored.

Other reasons for being cautious include doubts over the reliability and security of the internet. While the internet is generally very reliable, several instances of damage to subsea cables earlier in 2008 caused severe disruption to services in Egypt, the Middle East and India. Nonetheless, for most companies it is probably a fair assumption that their internet connection will suffer less downtime than their in-house severs. The SSL (secure sockets layer) cryptographic protocol, which is commonly used by SaaS vendors, offers high security and is routinely used for applications such as electronic commerce.

SaaS applications
Office applications have already been mentioned, but there are several other areas where SaaS is becoming popular. Project management, human resources, customer relationship management and supply chain management are just a few examples. But what about applications for engineers?

Product lifecycle management (PLM) and collaboration tools are starting to become available as SaaS applications, plus there are several knowledge management packages to choose from.

PTC offers small and medium-sized businesses its PLM On Demand software, which is based on PTC's Windchill PLM package. The company says that PLM On Demand delivers a comprehensive suite of affordable modules over the internet. IBM e-business Hosting is said to provide industry-leading security policies and practices that ensure data security, as well as high-end hardware that would otherwise be beyond the budget of small and medium-sized businesses. Customers can purchase Windchill Projectlink (for collaborative product development and project management), Windchill PDMLink (a data repository for managing all forms of product data and change/configuration management) or both. In all cases there is a fixed set-up fee and monthly per-user fees.

Another SaaS PLM system is Arena PLM, which has been designed as a single-instance, multi-tenant application for delivery as a service over the internet. The on-demand technology enables extended product teams to interact transparently regardless of any geographic or organisational boundaries. Arena PLM is described as a complete product lifecycle management system that centralises product information, automates key collaboration processes such as change and request management, and provides analytical tools for instant visibility of product, project and compliance status. The company gives a guarantee of 99.5 per cent system availability and it says its security track record is flawless. One of Arena's recent customers is the Zenn Motor Company, a Canadian developer, manufacturer and supplier of innovative zero-emission electric vehicles. Zenn has adopted Arena PLM to help it leap-frog traditional automotive company competition; the company uses Arena PLM to manage its entire product record, control engineering changes, manage industry regulatory compliance, and improve collaboration with the supply chain.

The Datastay PLM suite is another option for organisations seeking PLM as an internet-based service. Flexible enough to meet the needs of any size of manufacturing operation and comprehensive enough to support their diverse and growing needs, Datastay says its PLM offering can be tailored to suit customers' requirements and rapidly deployed in an extremely cost-effective manner.

CAD on demand
In terms of SaaS for core design activities, Solidworks is offering its Drawings Now system via its Solidworks Labs facility that enables users of Solidworks CAD software to upload drawing files. These can then be accessed by anyone via a web browser, and the viewer can rotate, zoom or pan the drawing. While this will certainly be useful, a more exciting development from Solidworks Labs is Cosmosexpress Now. This enables a user to upload a CAD file, follow a series of steps presented on screen and then view the results of a first-pass finite element analysis within the web browser.

Another company experimenting with online tools for sharing CAD files is Autodesk. Available via the Autodesk Labs, Autodesk Freewheel is a free web service for sharing and viewing 2D and 3D designs without the need to download or install any software.
 
Viewing CAD files without the need to install special software is undoubtedly a great benefit to many users, but there is often a requirement to annotate (markup) the drawings or models. Unlike the software described above, however, Aftercad Online (ACO) enables users to annotate models, as well as pan, zoom and rotate them. Furthermore, the same company, Aftercad, has also published a beta version of its Aftercad Realworld software that additionally allows full interaction with objects in a 3D scene. Models will be securely stored and served from Aftercad server farms.

While undertaking the research for this article the only SaaS CAD software that was identified was Zdesign On-Demand, which is just one tool in the Zweave Collaborative Design Studios suite of on-demand products aimed at the fashion industry. Of course, there may be suppliers of SaaS applications for CAD, FEA, mechanism simulation and other engineering-related tasks, but they are certainly not yet serious competitors to the established vendors of licensed software in this sector. Within a few years, however, the situation may well change, with ever-increasing processor power and bandwidth paving the way for CAD software to be supplied over the internet as a cost-effective service.

GB/25th February, 2008

Microsoft-Google battle for yahoo

Microsoft Corporation made a well-timed move to check Internet search goliath Google Inc. in the multibillion-dollar online advertising market on February 9, offering an unsolicited $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. and forge one of the biggest technology alliances in history.

But many obstacles remain. Financially weakened Yahoo, which spurned earlier overtures from Microsoft, might turn to another buyer, potentially Google itself, some industry analysts suggested.

Even if the proposed merger goes through, it could prove challenging to integrate two very different corporate cultures - Microsoft's more deliberate computer software culture and Yahoo's faster-moving Internet culture - and create a powerful online consumer experience, in everything from e-mail and search to finance and shopping, that combines the strengths of both companies.

"It's going to be a really, really messy merger, especially for users," said Charlene Li, technology analyst for Forrester Research in Foster City, Calif. "On paper it makes sense. But if you use Microsoft's Hotmail or Yahoo Mail or a My Yahoo page, you'll wonder what's going to happen to your favorite things. People don't like change." Li said attempting to consolidate services offered by the two company could wind up driving customers away.

The cash-and-stock offer of $31 a share represents a 62 per cent premium over Yahoo's closing stock price of $19.18 on Thursday, putting pressure on Yahoo to accept the deal or find a better alternative. Rejecting the deal could also prompt a hostile takeover battle.

Yahoo released a statement promising its directors "will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo's strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders." A spokesman for Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., said its executives would not elaborate.

Launched by Stanford University students Jerry Yang and David Filo working out of a trailer in 1994, Yahoo was a pioneer in the Internet portal business, which sought to create robust consumer guides online.

But as advertisers have followed the consumer stampede to the Internet in recent years, both Microsoft and Yahoo have been playing catch-up to Google, which has used its market-leading search engine to match consumers and advertisers through ads tied to key word searches and placed on its search result pages. The value of the online advertising market was $40 billion last year, with Google grabbing the lion's share, and the market is projected to nearly double by 2010, according to Microsoft's estimates.

Microsoft has responded with new online offerings, called Live Services, an initiative led by its chief software architect Ray Ozzie, who was recruited from Massachusetts.

But so far these new Internet consumer services, which include search and instant messaging, have failed to make substantial dents in Google's advertising base, analysts said. In addition, they said, the offerings have at times conflicted with the company's MSN consumer businesses and confused consumers.

Google's share of overall search queries, which are key to driving users to its advertisements, was 58.4 per cent last month, compared to a 22.9 per cent share for Yahoo and a 9.8 per cent share for Microsoft, the market research firm comScore Inc. reported.

"Microsoft's efforts to migrate from a packaged software company to an online business have not been successful to date," said Ned May, lead analyst for research firm Outsell Inc. in Boston. "So now Microsoft is trying to tap into Yahoo's traffic and community. And the price today is a bargain because Yahoo's stock is down."

Shares of Yahoo vaulted 47.97 per cent to $28.38, a gain of $9.20, in Nasdaq composite trading yesterday. Microsoft shares on the Nasdaq, meanwhile, retreated $2.15, or 6.6 per cent, to $30.45. News of the takeover offer, a signal the acquisition business may be reheating, helped push the Dow Jones industrial average up 92.83 points to 12,743.19, a gain of 0.73 per cent for the day.

In a Microsoft conference call yesterday morning, Steven A. Ballmer, chief executive of the Redmond, Wash., software maker, insisted that an acquisition would benefit both companies. "This is a proposal we believe to be a very good deal for Yahoo shareholders and an offer we want them to think about seriously," Ballmer said.

Separately, the company said the merger could save Microsoft $1 billion a year by running the two organizations more efficiently.

The offer came at a strategically smart time for Microsoft, with both Google and Yahoo smarting from recent financial reports.

After posting lower fourth-quarter net income earlier this week, Yahoo said it planned to eliminate 1,000 jobs. But the company still had 133.7 million unique visitors to its website last month, more than Microsoft's 120.2 million, according to Boston research firm Compete Inc. The firm estimates, however, that as many as 96.5 million were visitors to both sites.

If the merger takes place and the companies fail to integrate their sites effectively in overlapping areas like autos, personal finance, and entertainment, some consumers could defect to Google, analysts warned.

At the same time, there are signs Google's own business may be slowing. The company's fourth-quarter profits were below analysts' forecasts, and yesterday the company's shares tumbled $7.05, or 39.7 per cent, on the news of Microsoft's offer for Yahoo. "It would be premature for us to comment at this time," said Matt Furman, a spokesman at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Analysts said Microsoft's bid made it unlikely Yahoo can remain independent, regardless of how it responds in coming days.

"Yahoo is in play," said Forrester's Li. "If they don't accept the Microsoft bid at that premium, there'll be a stockholder revolt."

GB/19th February, 2008

Microsoft shakes up online team ahead of Yahoo

Microsoft Corp announced a management shake-up at its loss-making online division on February 14 thrusting an outsider into a prominent position ahead of a proposed merger with Yahoo Inc.

Brian McAndrews, the former CEO of the aQuantive digital advertising company that Microsoft bought last year, will assume greater responsibilities at the company's online services unit, taking over much of the duties of division head Steve Berkowitz. He will leave Microsoft in August, the company said in a statement.

While Microsoft also promoted two other executives to senior jobs in the division, the reshuffle suggested to some that McAndrews, 47, will likely be in a top leadership position in the combined Microsoft-Yahoo, should the Web pioneer accept Microsoft's $41.8 billion buyout offer.

"If anyone is going to lead Microsoft out of its problems online, it's going to be McAndrews," said Matt Rosoff, analyst at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. "He's the person who has the most experience in advertising and they are going to lean pretty heavily on him."

A Microsoft spokesman said the leadership changes were unrelated to the Yahoo negotiations, noting that seven other executives were also promoted to senior vice president.

A former ABC television executive, McAndrews is expected to play a central role in integrating Yahoo's advertising platform into Microsoft and creating a digital advertising powerhouse to rival Google Inc.

He ran aQuantive for seven years, developing relationships with advertising agencies, advertisers and Internet companies.

Yahoo has rejected Microsoft's unsolicited bid, saying the offer undervalues the company. Microsoft has said its offer is "full and fair," but analysts expect the company to sweeten its price to clinch a deal.

McAndrews and Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie are expected to play a lead role in the Redmond, Washington-based company's charm offensive to retain Yahoo staff if a deal gets done.

As executives who are not Microsoft lifers, the pair will try to encourage Yahoo employees to bury years of Silicon Valley animosity toward Microsoft and join forces to defeat a common enemy in Google.

A Microsoft employee, who declined to be identified, said McAndrews has got the "street cred" to get respect from not only Microsoft staff, but from Yahoo.

"He's not seen as a typical Microsoft executive, because he ran his own company. That will get him respect in both Redmond and Silicon Valley," said the Microsoft source.

Unlike a merger of companies with significant fixed assets, Yahoo's prime asset may be its people and their Web expertise. Retaining as much of its top talent as possible will be one of Microsoft's top priorities.

TWO OTHERS PROMOTED
Microsoft also promoted Satya Nadella and Bill Veghte to senior vice president positions.

Nadella will take a lead engineering role in the online division, while Veghte will take on a sales, marketing and strategy role in Windows and Microsoft's online properties. The reshuffle was first reported by CNET.

The Yahoo offer is Microsoft's latest attempt to overhaul its online services group. The division has not turned a profit in two years and has undergone a series of strategic shifts, but has done little to slow the rise of Google.

The 49-year-old outgoing division head, Berkowitz, a former Ask.com chief executive, was hired in May 2006 to implement changes at the division. But company insiders say he has had trouble navigating Microsoft's political power struggles. A Microsoft spokesman said Berkowitz was not available for comment.

Shortly after joining Microsoft, Berkowitz criticized the company in an interview with The New York Times, saying Microsoft had lost its way because it became too enamored with software wizardry instead of making a search engine people wanted to use.

In that same interview, Berkowitz also equated Microsoft to a cruise ship that was hard to redirect.

GB/19th February, 2008

Opportunities waiting for Bangladesh in the Danish ICT market

Bangladesh could take a share of Denmark's big ICT market by becoming an outsourcing destination of the European country, Einar H. Jensen, Danish ambassador in Dhaka, told in  a seminar on February 15.

 The seminar was held on the sidelines of the five-day Software exposition that began on February 14 at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre, organized by Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).

The envoy further said the wide use of English in Bangladesh is an added benefit of bringing Danish ICT companies to Bangladesh.

Rafiqul Islam Rowly, president of BASIS, said, “Though the universities produce a good number of people every year, they cannot fulfill the market demand as their curricula do not match with the market requirements.”  "This is why we proposed to the ministry of Science and ICT for establishing an institution that will groom up graduates and other IT experts," Rowly said.

Nurul Kabir, convener of SoftExpo 2008 and director of BASIS, also spoke at the function, among others.

GB/16th February, 2008

Internet tariff reduce 20 to 40 percent

Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) has recently reduced internet tariff charges by 20 percent to 40 percent in different slabs in a bid to accelerate the development of the country's information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

According to BTTB's new tariff plan effective from February 1, annual rentals for leased internet access service for 64kbps (kilobits per second) to 2mbps (megabits per second) bandwidth range between Tk 96,000 and Tk 1.44 lakh from the earlier charges of Tk 1.65 lakh and Tk 1.92 lakh respectively.

Installation charge for leased internet access for above 2mbps bandwidth has been fixed at minimum Tk 20,000, while monthly rental for the same service is minimum Tk 36,000 and maximum Tk 40,000 for different slabs from Tk 55,000 and Tk 75,000 earlier.

BTTB's new charge for individual internet subscriber is Tk 1,000 a month for unlimited usage, reduced from Tk 1,400, while the monthly charge for two other corporate packages is Tk 700 each, down from Tk 1,000 and Tk 750.

Although the internet service providers have welcomed the BTTB's new tariff plan, they said the charges should be reduced more in line with the neighboring countries'.

Bangladesh was connected to the information superhighway via an undersea cable in 2006 at a cost of $35.1 million. The SEA-ME-WE-4 cable has a bandwidth capacity of 1.2 terabytes per second.  The government is planning to install another submarine cable as backup to ensure uninterrupted connection with the global information highway.

Meanwhile, BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission) has short listed forty-three local firms out of 57 for the final bidding process of awarding 3 international internet gateway (IIG) and interconnection exchange (ICX) licenses.
The telecom regulator sent letters on February 6 to the qualified bidders. Of them, only two companies will get ICX licenses and one IIG license.

Responding to the BTRC's invitation, 18 local firms submitted their proposals for IIG licenses and 39 for ICX licenses. International incoming and outgoing voice calls including VoIP will be routed through ICX services. IIG services will act as an internet gateway for routing international incoming and outgoing internet based data traffic.

As per the BTRC letters to the short listed bidders, auction for ICX and IIG will be held on February20 and 25 in Dhaka respectively. A bidder interested to get ICX licence is required to deposit Tk3 crore as security money with the BTRC through a pay order within 7 working days after the receipt of the letter.

The prospective IIG licensee is required to deposit Tk1lakh with the BTRC within the similar period to participate in the final bid.

GB/7th February, 2008

Vodafone interested to invest in Bangladesh

World's thinnest laptop from Apple

Bangladesh can explore ICT sector  for her massive development

Walter Fust, Chairman of GKP interviews with IT Journalist

Walter Fust is Chairman of the Board of the "Global Knowledge Partnership- GKP", a network dealing with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for development. He is a member of the U.N. ICT-Panel of Advisors. He also Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).  Recently IT journalist Mohammad Kawsar Uddin spoke to him at the Third Global Knowledge Conference (GK3), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The interview narrated as follows:

Q. At the end of GK3, what is your impression about the success of the conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
Ans: When we were planning to organize GK3 gathering, the main organizer GKP wanted to start a series of event which would think about the future development on the basis of analyzing present; so we gathered present data to know the real situation, then we selected the title Emerging People, Emerging Markets and Emerging Technologies. It was composed in a manner to offer multiple opportunities to people who are interested in one or several subjects. It was organized to bring the people together. I think the objective was to make people aware of different trends and new opportunities. After the event many of the participants are going home from here with taking some ideas to make their work and activities more successful and to gain new directions in their concentrated field. Actually achievement is a continuous process that is why we arranged the three day-long gathering for the participants to share experiences and mutual understandings.

Q. What is the important thing for the poor people in the world? Either food or connectivity? Can a knowledge based-society solve poverty of the world?
Ans: Often I used to face such questions even in my home; of course, you could not survive when you would not have food. If you could not eat properly, then you are not healthy enough to learn and work. Now we can come in the whole issue of information, access and knowledge. However, it is not an issue of what we need first and later.
I have met a lot of people who say- we are living in poverty but we would never expect to be excluded from information and knowledge. Knowledge becomes at the given edge and at the given moment something like food. Food for thought, food for new activities, food for new plan and you cannot replace it physically.
I am sure that to solve the problem of poverty knowledge is required. Poverty is men made problem, so men have to find the solution of it.

Q. After 10 years how technology will dominate us?
Ans: I think telecommunication infrastructures will be widely expended. The infrastructure will be substantially better than today and that will shift from the cost affective trend to the low cost service provision. Maybe you do not need to pay for accessing info-tech along; you only have to pay for services when you will use the infrastructure. I think schools and teachers should have free access to Internet.

Q. As a masterminded of GKP do you think it can be able to fulfill your dream after 10 years?
Ans: It will fulfil my dream with convening people and my dream can come true by building better awareness among the people. But we are still far away from showing importance of IT to the people. We have to involve decision-makers in the process of reducing digital divide as well as their strong role needed. Still many politicians do not realize the power of Information and Communication Technology for the sustainable development. So, there are many things to do. We need to aware them about the tool of info-tech, which is essential for changing our society. Along with people policy makers should realize the omnipotence of ICTs can make the world much easier.

Q. What is the greatest success and biggest failure during your leadership?
Ans: I think my success is that hundreds of different partnerships are increasing and development initiatives like the international network for language diversity and the creation of the Young Social Entrepreneurs fund are getting more stronger.
Failure is- we took long time to bring ICT as a political agenda. We said it in the Geneva, WSIS. However, I do not like to say it is a kind of failure; yes, we took more times than we expected. Now it is being regarded as a political agenda, but it is not yet an agenda of private sector outside the IT sector, development practitioners and those who finance development. They just have heard about the ICT, they see something important within info-tech, but they do not properly address ICT4D activities.
For poverty reduction strategy of your country you have to think how ICT can help your work in a right way. While you will think about education, then you will find ICT can play strong role here. Still we have many things to do in addressing the vital issue.

Q. Can ICT play a role in managing climate change and disaster?
Ans: In disaster chasing preparation and disaster management ICT certainly can play a strong role. ICTs can be applied to alert the people before the strike of cyclone. Importance of ICT depends on how you want to use.

Q. You know BTN, an NGO coalition of Bangladesh, planned to build up 40 thousand telecentres by 2011? How can SDC and GKP support the initiative?
Ans: I am very much impressed to know the initiative of Mission 2011 and looking forward to see their activities. I hope you will be able to mobilise the resources and will be able to build up capacity to implement the ambitious project. A telecentre is useful in providing the content relevant information to the people. This is good to see Bangladesh is following the initiative of India like Mission 2007. I think the telecentre initiative is one of the fastest movements we have experienced over the couple of years. The UNGAID, I am member of the steering committee chaired by Craig Barret, took an initiative to set up 100 thousand telecenters by 2012 across the globe.

Q. Are you confident that GKP will be able keep its pace if you quit?
Ans: Oh! It is a movement. Many young leaders are ready to take the leadership.
I am confident, GKP will keep its pace because it is a multi-stakeholder movement.

Q. What is your opinion about Bangladesh's ICT4D, Information and Communication Technology for Development? What is your wish for our ICT4D community?
Ans: Many efforts of your country are on the way. I think Bangladesh has responded very well to the challenge and recognition of ICT and knowledge-based economy. Now you have a lot of well-trained people. Like India Bangladesh has to come as software supplier and can become an assembler or producer of devices.
My wishes for your ICT community are- please bring ICT as development, industrial and economic development agendas. I hope 160 million people of Bangladesh can explore the benefits of ICT as a development tool.

GB/18 January, 2008

Small and Medium Businesses spend $ 380 million for IT-Telecom solutions