Telephone Shilpa Sangstha to be declared a hi-tech park

The government mulls declaring the Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (TSS) Ltd a hi-tech park to attract foreign investment, according to officials.

The Standing Committee on Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications & Information Technology agreed on a proposal in this regard on Wednesday.

Committee Chairman AKM Rahmatullah presided over the meeting while Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar and State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak were present.

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar told The Business Standard that the state minister for ICT Division made the proposal and the committee members gave their consent.

"If the Telephone Shilpa Sangstha is declared a hi-tech park, it will be able to attract more foreign investments in Bangladesh. Besides, the investors in the park will receive a 10% export incentive," he said.

The Telephone Shilpa Sangstha is a state-owned company under the Posts and Telecommunications Division that produces digital devices such as laptop, desktops, notebooks, tabs, biometric devices, multimedia projectors, sound boxes and smart prepaid energy meters.

The country has been implementing 92 Hi-Tech and Software Technology Parks projects across the country, of which construction of nine parks has already been completed.

The Hi-Tech Parks Authority data show that private entrepreneurs invested Tk570 crore in the hi-tech parks by 2021, as the parks look forward to Tk7,970 crore investment by 2025.

At present, hardware and software firms in the parks are provided with some 14 incentives including tax exemption and custom duty exemption.

The committee also discussed how "Nagad'', a digital transaction platform, runs its operation with the postal department.

The standing committee recommended presenting details about the overall activities of Nagad in the next meeting.

Mustafa Jabbar said, "Our ties with Nagad is that the platform shares 51% of its revenue with the postal department. But we don't take any liabilities of Nagad,"  

In the meeting, the committee also recommended for extension of ICT services to remote areas and haor regions.

Among the committee members, Benjir Ahmed, Rejwan Ahammad Taufiq, Fahmi Gulandaz Babel, Md Nurul Amin, Monira Sultana, Zakia Parvin Khanam and Aparajita Haque attended the meeting.