Iqbal Mahmood, Senior ERD Secretary, and Ellen Goldstein, WB Country Director in Dhaka, exchange documents after signing an agreement at ERD office in Dhaka Monday.

The World Bank will provide US$ 70 million in loan to Bangladesh for ICT expansion and employment generation.

A financing agreement between the global lender and the government was signed yesterday to implement the Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance Project aiming to create an estimated 30,000 direct jobs in the IT and ITES sectors.

Senior Secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) Iqbal Mahmood and the WB Country Director Ellen Goldstein struck the deal on behalf of their respective sides.

The project will also open an avenue to create up to 120,000 indirect jobs, and increasing IT and ITES industry revenue by over $200 million, officials said.

“The project would directly benefit 30,000 youths who will gain marketable and globally recognised IT and ITES skills. Among them, 9,000 will be women,” said Ellen Goldstein.

“Bangladeshis will benefit from increased incomes due to upgrading of and enhanced employment opportunities in a growing global IT industry,” she added.

The project will also establish basic e-government foundations to support governance reforms and significantly improve the government’s efficiency and effectiveness.

Specifically, the proposed technology foundation will enable all ministries and agencies to host their systems and information on a shared datacenter; exchange information and collaborate using standardised frameworks; and protect data through information security policies and standards.

The credit from the International Development Association (IDA), WB’s concessionary arm, has a maturity period of 40 years with a 10-year grace period. There will be a service charge of 0.75 percent.

Studies indicate that Bangladesh possesses significant comparative advantage in the IT and ITES industry due to the availability of a large English-educated talent pool and competitive labor costs.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/27-Nov-12