Bangladesh in the limelight at CeBIT 2012
Brazil is all over the annual Centre for Office and Information Technology (CeBIT) 2012 Trade Show in Hannover, Germany – and so is Bangladesh, albeit on a smaller scale. There are 20+ IT companies from Dhaka attending the fair and the Bangladesh country stand is next to the Brazilian and the Centre for the Promotion of Imports (CBI) stands. CBI is the Dutch agency funding the NTFII Bangladesh project that is being implemented by the ITC and is also directly supporting the participation of 12 “NTFII companies”.
During the five day long fair the Bangladeshi companies have the opportunity to meet with potential clients and partners from Germany and abroad. With over 4,500 exhibitors and 325,000 visitors, the fair offers tremendous matchmaking opportunities, but also requires a significant amount of pre-marketing, for instance by using the online matchmaking service offered by the trade fair organizers. Some participants are exhibiting for the first time, such as Raisul Kabir, CEO of Brainstation 23 who said; “We have come here to explore the market – we expect to invest at least 3 years in this effort”. “B2B exploration is our core objective as well” adds Manjur Mahmud, COO at Datasoft, the IT company behind the automation of Dhaka customs house and Chittagong port. “But it won’t harm to develop new business as well” – Manjur points at a stack of business cards that he has divided into “hot” and “cold” leads.
Some trade show visitors asked the valid question of “Why outsource to Bangladesh?”. Part of the answer is in the KPMG benchmarking report, commissioned by ITC, which compares Bangladesh with other global sourcing locations and points at its key strengths. The other part is in the hands of the Bangladeshi IT companies, as Reazzudin Mosharaf, Managing Director at Windmill Infotech explained; “We have to build trust – there is no better way to do it than to start face to face”.
