The ICT sector trailblazers were honoured today with the Brac Bank-The Daily Star ICT Awards for their exceptional contributions in advancing the information and communication technology sector of Bangladesh.

Five companies and one individual were recognised at the eighth edition of the Brac Bank-The Daily Star ICT Awards.

Planning Minister MA Mannan handed over the awards to the winners at a ceremony at Le Meridien Dhaka, the hospitality partner for the event.

Kazi Saifuddin Munir, managing director and CEO of IT Consultants Ltd, have been honoured with the ICT Business Person of Year 2022 award.

Divine IT Ltd won the award as the ICT Solution Provider of the Year (local market).

Dynamic Solution Innovators Ltd was recognised as the ICT Solution Provider of the Year (international market).

Pickaboo.com was recognised as the Digital Commerce of the Year.

And two startups Truck Lagbe and Moner Bondhu were recognised for their promise to the IT sector under the ICT Startup of the Year.

Morin Talukder, co-founder and CEO of Pickaboo.com; Anayet Rashid, CEO of Truck Lagbe; Tawhida Shiropa, founder and CEO of Moner Bondhu; Mojahedul Hoque Abul Hasanat, chairman and chief technology officer of Dynamic Solution Innovators Ltd (DSi); Iqbal Ahmed Fakhrul Hasan, founder and CEO of Divine IT Ltd, and Kazi Saifuddin Munir, founder, managing director and CEO of IT Consultants Ltd, received the awards from Planning Minister MA Mannan.

Mahfuz Anam, publisher and editor of The Daily Star; Selim RF Hussain, managing director and CEO of Brac Bank, and Russel T Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), were present at the award ceremony. 

The Daily Star organised the event in association with Brac Bank, enlightened by Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services.

The Daily Star has been recognising and celebrating extraordinary achievements by IT entrepreneurs since 2016 to raise awareness about the role of ICT in nation building and to encourage innovation and excellence among ICT talents and enterprises. 

IT sector is growing and Bangladesh's IT sector has been recognised as one of the most promising industries and is forecasted to reach $5 billion by 2025, according to the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (Bida).

Over 4,500 IT and ITES firms in Bangladesh are employing over 7.50 lakh ICT professionals.

Export earnings surpassed $1 billion in 2019, registering a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent since 2013, according to Bida.

"The earnings are further enhanced by a large pool of online workers. In 2017, Bangladesh had a total of 6.5 lakh registered freelancers, the second largest pool of online workers in the world, commanding a market share of 16 percent after India with 24 percent of the market," it said. 

Among them, 5 lakh are actively working with aggregate earnings of $100 million per annum, it said.