The Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) today honoured 99 individuals and companies in recognition of their outstanding performance in the IT outsourcing sector.

In the seventh edition of the flagship BASIS Outsourcing Award, the association gave 99 awards – 20 at the company level and 79 at individual level - in seven categories.

ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak attended the ceremony to award the winners, who were selected from over 1,400 aspirants.

At the company level, five awards were given in the 'Outsourcing Company' category, five in the 'Startup' category and 10 in the 'Export Excellence' category.

At the individual level, awards were given to 63 individuals from 63 districts, 6 women in the individual women's category, 10 top national outsourcers.

BASIS for the first time also honoured a specially-abled individual at the programme.

The government has set a target to earn $5 billion in export revenue by 2025 from software and IT sector, BASIS President Syed Almas Kabir said at the event.

The government has introduced 10 per cent cash incentive on income earned in the sector, he said and urged the government to increase the incentive to 20 per cent.

He emphasised on taking more public-private initiatives to innovate new products and services as well as to improve skills in order to expand market abroad.

He said the local software and software services, which are currently being used successfully here need to be taken to other parts of the world to materialise the vision of digital Bangladesh.

He underscored the need for government assistance in taking proper initiatives to expand the market of local software beyond the border to achieve the export targets.

BASIS Senior Vice President Farhana A Rahman in her speech emphasised on developing skills in line with the advancement of technology.