Ministries should allocate 10% of budget to buy software, ITES: BASIS

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) has urged all the ministries and their affiliated agencies to allocate 10 per cent of their annual budget for buying software and IT-enabled services (ITES).

The newly elected executive council of BASIS led by its president, Russell T Ahmed, made the call at a meeting with Planning Minister MA Mannan at the latter's office in Dhaka's Agargaon area today.

At the meeting, Ahmed said all the ministries and their affiliated agencies have adequate budgets for their internal development. At least 10 per cent of their budget should be allocated for buying software and ITES, he said.

He said BASIS is contributing greatly to the economy.  "We are implementing fintech, edutech, healthtech, e-commerce and almost all e-governance projects of the government. Moreover, our activities in the international sphere are contributing to achieving government's target to earn $5 billion in ICT exports."

At the meeting, the planning minister assured the BASIS leaders to give all the necessary support to develop the ICT industry and implement their recommendations.