The government has decided to construct an Information Technology (IT) Tower with necessary infrastructures and modern facilities to give the huge prospect of IT sector a material shape.
The tower will create scope for setting up software to produce computer software alongside providing IT-enabled service and e-commerce like hi-tech facilities, sources said.
It would help set up computer hardware industry to create a market of IT sector as well, they added.
Commerce and Education Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman disclosed the decision to set up the IT tower after a follow-up meeting of development projects at the commerce ministry in the capital on September 17.
The decision was taken at the meeting of Council of Advisers at Chittagong Circuit House with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair on August 13.
Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) has already started preparing the Development Project Proposal (DPP) in this regard, sources said.
The government decided to construct the IT tower following the report of a six-member committee that carried out feasibility study and assessed different aspects, including site selection and budget for the project.
The committee was formed at a meeting on development programmes in Chittagong with Housing and Public Works Secretary ASM Rashidul Hye in the chair on June 8. CDA Chairman Shah Muhammad Akhteruddin was made convener of the committee and Bangladesh Tele-Communication Limited (BTCL) General Manager KK Roy member secretary.
The committee submitted its report with a location map (schematic diagram) of three primarily possible sites for the IT tower on July 16.
The IT tower will help people reap the benefit of the submarine communication cable, develop human resources, create job opportunity and earn the government huge revenue from the potential IT sector.
It would also help set up IT software, IT software-enabled industry and IT hardware industry to produce and sell computer software, IT-enabled service as well as computer hardware, they said.
IT hardware industry would create scope for computer assembling and manufacture of computer monitors, printers, scanners, modems, switches, networking equipment, UPS, mobile sets, batteries, ATM machines LAN cables and spare parts to meet domestic demand saving foreign currency and earn revenue from their export as well, said the sources.
They said neighbouring India has raised its earning through IT software and service export to 70 billion US dollar in 2007-2008 from 31.4 billion US dollar of the previous fiscal year (2006-2007).
Akhteruddin said a 20 to 25-storey IT Tower will be constructed with all sorts of infrastructure and facilities.
The tower will be set up under public-private partnership. A rich call centre will be set up through outsourcing for the growth of IT software-enabled services like data processing and other technologies, he said.
“It would expedite various industrial units like garments depending on this most modern technology and help advancement of trade and commerce through a network with the global market as well,” said the CDA chairman while talking to this correspondent on Sunday.
The IT tower will also help further development of engineering and construction industries for planned urbanisation.
It would contribute to developing human resources and create jobs for around 20,000 people here,” he added.
Sources said, the six-member committee selected 0.84 acres of land to the south-east as the best site for the IT Tower. The existing building of Stadium Shopping Complex could be remodelled and included into the structure for IT tower, the committee report said.
It also considered 50 kathas of land at the Ananya Residential Area, a CDA housing project, and 50 Katha of railway land to the east of Kadamtali Intersection as the two alternative sites for the tower, said the sources at CDA.
The committee considered the sites with priority since they were within 3km radius of the submarine cable connectivity Co-location centre at BTCL Nandan Kanan office, the sources added.
KK Roy said BTCL is ready to provide submarine cable connectivity required for setting up IT Tower here.
Using the existing metallic cable, BTCL can provide Submarine Cable Connectivity for dial-up or broadband internet speed ranging from 64 KBPS (kilobyte per second) to 115 MBPS (megabyte per second) at any place within 3km to 4km of the submarine cable terminal station at its Nandan Kanon telephone exchange building, he said.