February 3, 2011
Speakers blame social milieu for women’s backwardness in IT
Outsourcing business in the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) industry of the country could touch more than US$ 1 billion by the year 2015 provided that the opportunities were taped into efficiently, observed the speakers at a seminar yesterday.
At another seminar, the keynote speaker blamed the social milieu to hinder the progress of women in IT (Information Technology) sector.Both seminars were held yesterday at the sideline of BASIS Soft Expo’2011 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
The seminar titled Outsourcing Opportunities in VoIP Industry was attended by former president of Tata Teleservices of India Sukanta Dey, Managing Director of Agni Systems Ltd of Bangladesh Abdus Salam and former president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information (BASIS) Habibulla N Karim as panel discussants.
Founder Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of REVE Systems moderated the panel discussions. REVE Systems, a leading VoIP products and Solutions Company, organised the seminar.
Global Marketing Director of REVE Systems Sanjit Chatterjee and Sukanta Dey presented two separate keynote papers. Sukanta Dey shared the success story of mobile operators in India and the success of outsourcing model as well. He also said the mobile operators globally were concentrating on their core expertise areas and outsourcing IT services, Network Management and customer care or billing departments to specialist companies.
Sanjit Chatterjee outlined the various opportunities in the VoIP industry, which can be explored by the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs. Habibullah N Karim said Bangladesh has walked a long way in telecommunication over the past 30 years but still miles are there to go. He said the country, with having skilled manpower in the IT and telecom domains, is very well placed to tap the opportunity.
MD of Agni Systemsopined that the government needs to change some of regulations of relevant sector to tap into opportunities. Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are leading the VoIP service industry, said CEO of REVE Systems, adding that these facts make easier for Bangladesh-based IT industry to offer outsourcing solutions to the world’s IP Telephony industry. A good number of visitors attended the seminar. They were asked to post the update of the event live on facebook, which saw great participation from them. Two of them were given prizes for best reporting of the event on facebook, an online social network site. The second seminar was held on Leveraging Potenial of Women in IT, organised by Bangladesh Women in Information Technology (BWIT).
State minister for Science and ICT Architect Yeafesh Osmanattended the seminar as chief guest, while Chief Information Commissioner Mohammad Zamirand Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof AAMS Arefin Siddiqui were present as special guests.
Prof Dr Suraya Parvin presented the keynote paper. Yeafes Osman urged all to work together irrespective of gender for making progress in ICT sector. Suraya Parvin said the social milieu and misconcept about women are the key bottleneck for greater women’s women participation in the sector, compared to other fields.