Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS)

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS)

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) is the national trade body for Software & IT Enabled Service industry of Bangladesh. Established in 1997, the association has been working with a vision of developing vibrant software & IT service industry in the country.

BASIS started its journey with only 17 charter members. Today the membership stands more than eleven hundred. Members of BASIS account for the lion share of the total software & IT services revenue of the country.

BASIS, through its regular programs and activities, works on the following broad objectives.

Domestic market development by creating awareness among potential IT users from both private and public sectors, establishing market places for IT solutions and ensuring level playing field for local software and ITE service industry

International market development through networking and business linkage events as well as brand promotion of the industry at international level

Capacity building of the member companies as well as the industry as a whole through management/entrepreneurship development initiatives, technology training and resource sharing

Member service development and delivery in different operational and business support areas like financing, tax, export/import, remittance, foreign visit, contract & legal issues, IPR etc.

Advocacy for business friendly and enabling government policies for the development of software and IT enabled service industry

Social contribution, as responsible citizen group, towards the long term national vision of becoming a technology driven knowledge economy, particularly through engaging with the young generation for motivating and guiding them for becoming future technology leaders

BASIS has already gained modest success in attaining the above mentioned goals. For domestic market creation, BASIS has wide range of programs and activities. Every year BASIS organizes BASIS SOFTEXPO, the biggest software and ITES exposition in the country. During the recent years, SOFTEXPO has become the yearly mega market place where software & IT service companies in the country project their products and services to potential IT users, both at corporate/organizational and individual level. BASIS periodically publishes software and IT service catalog /directory for promoting local solution providers to the potential business clients. For development of market in government sector BASIS has been working closely with different concerned Ministries and agencies of government. BASIS is trying to play a catalyst role so that its members can effectively provide support and technical guidance to different government initiatives taken in line with the Digital Bangladesh vision of current government. Along with these initiatives of market development, BASIS also provides IT procurement advisory services to both public and private sector clients.

With regard to export market development, BASIS regularly takes initiatives for creating exposure for member companies to international markets with the help of different government and development agencies working in the export development area. Such initiatives include -arranging participation at international IT fairs & marketing missions, business linkage programs for outsourcing, B2B trade platform etc.

There is a wide range of capacity building support that BASIS offers to its members. These initiatives are aimed at helping the member companies to become competitive at local and international level. These include training programs (technology and management; till date over two thousand professionals have received training from BASIS), promotion and sharing of best industry practices, quality drive across industry etc. In the recent past, BASIS has also taken step for in-depth industry research and development of white papers for providing strategic guidance to its members. With regard to policy advocacy for the sector, BASIS regularly interacts with concerned agencies of the Government and other relevant stakeholders. BASIS played an active role in the formulation of National ICT policy 2009. BASIS has also strongly advocated for industry support related policies and issues (tax exemption facility, EEF policy, Special Foreign Exchange rule for BASIS members etc.) for software and ITES industry. BASIS represents the industry in different national level committees including Digital Bangladesh Task Force (headed by PM), High Tech Park Development Authority and Executive Committee of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC).