Digital World begins today

The country's ICT entrepreneurs hope to bag Tk 100 crore worth of work orders in this year's Digital World—an ICT exposition—up from Tk 70 crore last year.

The four-day show with the slogan “Ready for Tomorrow” will start at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital today.

“Our target is to receive more business orders from renowned global companies, as we have expanded the size and duration of this year's expo,” Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, told The Daily Star.

A good number of ministers from different countries, including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Congo and the Maldives, will attend the fifth edition of Digital World, Palak said.

“We have received warm responses from the local and foreign businesses in the first four arrangements of the show.”

So far, 170 companies, including Google, Facebook, Motorola and Qualcomm, have signed up for the exposition.

Local entrepreneurs expect to get the highest number of orders for software, e-commerce, gaming and mobile innovation related works this year.

There will be some dedicated zones this year where business to business meetings will be held, the organisers said.

ICT Division in association with Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services is organising the exposition.

About 400 exhibitors from home and abroad will attend the event, for which the organisers expect to see around 5 lakh visitors. The event will remain open from 10:00am to 8:00pm every day.

The government has established 28 software parks across the country and cut down the tax on equipment to 1 percent from 25 percent.