BASIS SoftExpo 2023 starts Thursday

The four-day BASIS SoftExpo 2023, country's largest digital exhibition, started today (Thursday) at Bangabandhu Bangladesh China Friendship Exhibition Center, Purbachal in Dhaka with the slogan "Welcome to the Smartverse" aiming to attract more foreign investment in IT industry, a release said

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) has organised the show funded by the private sector to highlight the latest technological innovations and ICT capabilities of Bangladesh to the world, the release said on Wednesday.

Speaker of the National Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury is expected to inaugurate the exhibition at 11am on 23 February while Mustafa Jabbar, minister for posts and telecommunications, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT division, will attend as special guests.

The organisers of BASIS SoftExpo 2023 said that special campaigns have already been held at 50 universities of the country. There will be arrangement of special shuttle bus service for facilitating the visitors so that the visitors can easily visit the venue.

In the fair, robot display is one of the attractions for the visitors where a total of five university students including University of Dhaka, Brac University and Cumilla University will display their robots.   

BASIS President Russell T Ahmed said that the vision of Digital Bangladesh has been realised due mainly to pioneering role played by the IT sector.

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina aims to transform the country from digital to Smart Bangladesh by 2041. In this regard, BASIS, that is to say, the private sector can play a significant role for implementing the vision," he added.

"We hope that through this event foreign investors will be encouraged to invest more in our IT sector. As a result, we will go ahead several steps towards achieving the government's target of $5 billion export earnings by 2025", said Russel.

Abu Daud Khan, convener of BASIS SoftExpo 2023 and vice president (Admin) of BASIS, said the world is now at the threshold of 4th Industrial Revolution. Bangladesh also needs to advance by keeping pace with the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and Metaverse.

Over 800 high officials of corporate institutions are expected to attend at business leader's meet programme.

There will be special programmes such as ministerial conference, ambassadors' night with the participation of ambassadors and representatives of different countries. Besides, IT job fair and career camp for giving info on job in the IT sector, B2B Matchmaking session, freelancing conference, startup conference, developers' conference, women in IT programme and Japan Day will be held. At least 18 seminars and technology sessions will be held with the participation of high officials of public and private sector.

IFIC Bank Limited will be the platinum sponsor of the Softexpo, while Huawei will be the gold sponsor, and Robi, Pathao and Fiber@Home Limited as silver sponsors. In addition, GrameenPhone will be a 5G partner, bKash will be payment partner, Aamra Networks Limited as internet partner, and Daraz, bdjobs.com and eCourier as associate partners in the show to be held with sponsorship support of ICT Business Promotion Council (IBPC).