Smartphone imports in Bangladesh soar 46pc
Mobile phones worth Tk 8,000cr imported in 2016
Star Business Report
Smartphone imports through legal channel shot up 45.72 percent to 82 lakh pieces in 2016 from a year earlier, driven by the expansion of 3G services in Bangladesh.
Mobile imports through the legal channel crossed the three-crore mark for the first time, said Ruhul Alam Al Mahbub, president of the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association (BMPIA), at a press conference held at it headquarters in the capital yesterday.
It stood at 3.1 crore, up 11 percent year-on-year, with the total value of the imports coming to about Tk 8,000 crore. Smartphone imports accounted for Tk 6,500 crore.
Samsung, which has been in the second position in the smartphone category, brought in 15 lakh units in 2016. Walton, another local brand, imported about nine lakh smartphones, to round off the top three spots.
“Our handset market is still dominated by feature phones, but smartphones will rule in future,” Mahbub said.
The importers are expecting that smartphones will account for 60 percent of the total mobile imports in 2017 and 80 percent in 2018, according to Mahbub.
“Although the sales of smartphones in 2016 did not meet expectations, we are optimistic about this year,” said Rezwanul Hoque, general secretary of BMPIA.
He went on to tip the smartphone market to treble in the next five years.
The official smartphone import figure would have been higher: a big chunk of the smartphones that are sold in Bangladesh enters the country through the illegal channels.
For instance, almost 90 percent of the Apple handsets available in the market at present are brought into the country through illegal channels and 40 percent of the Samsung handsets, according to Mahbub.
The reason for the big chunk of illegal smartphone imports is that there is about 25 percent tax to be paid if brought in through the legal channel.
“If the government reconsiders the tax issue then smartphone penetration will be huge over the next few years,” the BMPIA president said.
In 2016, the government logged in Tk 1,300 crore in duty and value-added tax from mobile phones.
“We can give the government this amount of money if they reduce the tax even more as sales will increase then,” he said.
Meanwhile, many local and international companies have shown interest in establishing an assembly line in Bangladesh but are put off by the tax structure, said Mohammed Mesbah Uddin, joint secretary of BMPIA.
Currently, the average price of a smartphone in Bangladesh is about Tk 3,000, and it is Tk 1,000 for basic and feature phones.
Bangladesh's mobile phone industry got a boost in 2012 and 2013 -- especially in the smartphone segment -- after the roll-out of 3G services.
In 2012, only 3 percent of the total mobile imports were smartphones, which climbed to 7.88 percent in 2013, 19.7 percent in 2014 and 21 percent in 2015, according to BMPIA.
Raquibul Kabir, senior vice-president of BMPIA, and ATM Mahbubul Alam, treasurer of the association, were also present at the event.
ICT State Minister Proposed 20% Cash Incentive For Software & IT-Enabled Services Export
February 4, 2017
Nahid Farzana
ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak met Honorable Finance Minister Mr. Abul Maal Abdul Muhit and proposed 20% Cash Incentive for Software & IT-enabled services export, TAX holiday for venture capital and TAX exemption for eCommerce. Finance Minister has assured that he will consider the recommendations and he further asked the officials to probe into the feasibility of the recommendations.
bdskill.com- portal for IT sector employers and employees inaugurated
February 13, 2017
Faisal Mahmud
Bangladesh’s first technological field’s youth employment & placement portal
www.bdskills.com might be the right place for one to seek employment answers.
On Monday, at the premise of Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of Dhaka University (DU) where hundreds of job seekers went to attend the Dhaka IT and ITES fair 2017; the new portal was inaugurated by the State Minister of ICT Junaid Ahmed Palak.
Organized by the ICT Division and 'Leveraging ICT' for Growth, Employment and Governance (LICT), with assistance from Bangladesh Computer Council, Ernst & Young, IBA, and 'Bikroy.com', this job fair gave the aspiring tech savvy youth chances to get jobs in the IT and ITES sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Palak said that the opportunities for the tech graduates are aplenty in the country. “You are the future torch bearers for development of Bangladesh.”
He said that the goal of Digital Bangladesh is to reach $5 billion landmark on export revenue within 2021 and to create 2 million IT professionals as well.
“We have organized this fair as part of fulfilling that Goal. We are hoping to organize this sort of Event in different areas of our country on a regular basis.’’
About the new job portal, Palak said, it’s a great platform for all sorts of people in the IT sector. “If you visit that portal, you will see that there are provisions for registrations for IT graduates, IT faculty as well as for IT entrepreneurs looking to hire new graduates.”
“It’s a great matchmaking site under the direct supervision of the LICT,” he said adding that the portal also provides information about the upcoming training programs and certificate courses.
Component Team Leader of LICT Project Sani Ahmed said, LICT Project is providing technical training throughout the country to provide skilled manpower in Information & Technology Sector.
Ernst & Young, one of the largest professional services firm in the world is working in partnership with Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) on some major LICT projects. Till date, 30,000 graduates are being trained according to the industry standards under this programme for the IT and IT enabled services sector.
Currently over 5,000 graduates have successfully completed training per international standards and have been certified by international assessment agencies, informed Ahmed.
“In Bangladesh, the main problem however is that most of the times these trained IT graduates do not get jobs according to their ability and skill. On the other hand, employers such as IT Companies face challenges to select the right employee with ease and in time.”
He said that initiatives like the portal -
www.bdskills.com and IT and ITES job fair can make the hard task of matchmaking an easy one.
Meanwhile, the job fair was success with more than 11000 online registrations. Around 25000 visitors showed up at the fair. In terms of job offers, it was a new milestone as 10000 resumes were collected. A total of 377 potential job seekers have been selected primarily for various companies on the spot.
At the closing ceremony organized during the job fair, Pro Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Professor Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman was present as the special guest. Acting Director of IBA Professor Farhat Anwar moderated the event. The welcoming speech was given by LICT Project Director Md. Rezaul Karim NDC & Assistant Professor of IBA Md. Rezaul Kabir.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) President Mustafa Zabbar, Managing Director of Data Soft Mahbub Zaman, Managing Director of Aamra (WE) Group Syed Farhad Ahmed, Managing Director of Microsoft Bangladesh Sonia Bashir Kabir, Marketing Director of Bikroy Misha Ali and Director of Ernst & Young Kamlesh Vyas were present AND participated in the panel discussion at the event.
