BCS plans consortium to vie for big deals

In view of growing prospects in software export, country's leading computer firms and experts are considering forming a consortium to vie for big overseas contracts, reports UNB.

Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS), the association of computer firms, initiated the effort being buoyed by the commissioning of a software project by a US-based 500 million dollar company that will expand its business empire over here.

BCS sources said the total project of one of the "Fortune 500" companies would be 38 million dollars worth and it agreed to run four million dollar (Tk 20 crore) work in Bangladesh.

Expatriate Minhajul Islam, president of MTS, another US-based company in service and consulting sectors, has mooted the proposal for the four million dollar software-development project.

Business firm "Daffodil Computers" has already started the test work of the database software and launched the consortium proposal at a meeting of the BCS here yesterday.

Representatives of the country's leading computer firms as well as experts and programmers attended the daylong meeting where they discussed pros and cons of the offer.

A number of young computer professionals also attended the meeting where Minhajul Islam also placed a proposal for taking some experts to USA on H1 visa.

Country's pioneering computer personality Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury moderated the meeting attended by BCS president Aftab-ul Islam and general secretary Ahmed Hasan Jewel.

Minhajul Islam and BCS joint secretary M Sabur Khan, who is also the owner of the "Daffodil Computers", elaborated on the proposal a successful completion of which would bring many new offers.

Many participants of the meeting said it could open up new vistas for Bangladesh's software sector as it is the biggest open software export offer in the country's history.