Expected growth in IT freelancing that has the potential to outshine RMG sector is stymied by inadequate government policy support and complications confronting foreign-currency transactions, insiders say.
Bangladesh, having over 60,000 freelancers, now earns around 500 million US dollars through this information technology-enabled sector-one of the fastest-growing economic fields in the present-day world.
The government has set a target to jack up this earning to USD5.0 billion per annum in next four years.
Talking to the FE Tuesday, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said IT incubation centres are being established in 64 districts of the country as one of the growth propellers.
"We are also setting up training centres in almost all the upazilas for skill development of freelancers.
"And, today, a project aimed at developing 10 thousand women freelancers is being approved by the honourable Prime Minister."
However, many freelancers say, though the government announced some steps to facilitate the growth of the freelancing sector, in reality most of them cannot avail those for procedural bottlenecks.
"For getting any facility we need to present so many documents, and to collect those documents we have to face hazardous situation," says Raqib Amin, a top-rated freelancer.
Raquib, once a graphics designer of a national daily, quit his job and left the city for his hometown Nilphamari to start full-time freelancing in 2017.
The switch pays off. His annual income is around USD 25,000 now. But he is sure it can be much more if the obstacles are not there.
The government recently announced 4.0-percent cash incentives for IT freelancers and 10 per cent for a freelancing company.
Talking to the FE, Vice President of BASIS Mushfiqur Rahman said they are encouraging the freelancers to form companies to avail the 10-percent subsidy.
But most of the freelancers prefer working independently to the formation of company.
"I launched a company and employed some staff members but they were not skilled as they claimed. As a result, I failed to meet the deadline of some of my clients," says one freelancer, adding that he closed the company and enjoyed working independently.
Another barrier is lack of facility for direct currency transaction in Bangladesh. The ICT state minister once said that global currency-transfer company PayPal would come to Bangladesh, but talking to this correspondent on Tuesday, he said there was no progress on this front thus far.
Presently, the freelancers are taking work orders from different online marketplaces like Upwork or fiverr but they take a commission of 20 per cent of the bill amount from a freelancer.
"Due to the absence of payment gateway like Paypal, we have to throw away a large part of our income as commission," freelancer Raqib said.
He also claimed that freelancers like him are not getting properly the 2.0 per cent incentives declared by the government for remittance-earners.
About the introduction of identity card by the ministry concerned he said that they are not encouraged to get one as they have to pay Tk 1500 for each card and this is valid for only one year.
"It was said that ID card-holder can get bank loans but none in our circles avails such loan," he mentioned, terming the process too complicated and time-consuming.
According to a report, India has the largest pool of freelancing resources in the world with a share of 24 per cent of total global freelance workers, followed by Bangladesh being the second largest with 16 per cent share.
According to experts a country like Bangladesh where one in every 10 of its 44 million young people is unemployed, freelancing can be an ideal tool to provide employment opportunity.
Major problems in the area are lack of quality internet services, high broadband prices, and power cuts, they added.
As 65 per cent of its population is below 25 years, Bangladesh is regarded as an ideal spot for freelancers as gig workers.
Proper training to cope with the competitive market is necessary to build up larger freelancer base here, says economist Rashed Al Mahmud.
Chairman of Bangladesh Freelancing Development Society (BFDS) Dr Tanziba Rahman recently said there is no accurate information on the earnings of the country's freelancers and that is one of the main reasons for PayPal not entering Bangladesh.
According to the Global Gig-Economy Index 2019, Bangladesh ranked eighth in the fastest-growing freelancing market category but the country's freelancers are getting not more than 10 dollars per hour-lower than they get India and Pakistan.
BASIS feels that infrastructure facilities like high-speed internet in rural areas and access to broadband internet will have to be ensured and data price will have to be lowered for the freelancing sector to flourish.
According to BASIS, freelancing accounts for around 30 per cent of the total exports of software and IT-related services.
