The Daily Star ICT Awards 2021

Bangladesh has made great strides in the ICT sector in the last two decades thanks to the exponential growth achieved by the country's IT professionals and entrepreneurs riding on the favourable policy support. Now, nearly 2,000 IT firms and thousands of youths and IT experts are engaged in the sector to cater for local and international markets through their innovations, creativity and excellence. To raise awareness about the role of ICT in nation building and to encourage innovation and excellence among ICT talents and enterprises, The Daily Star has been recognising and celebrating extraordinary achievements by IT entrepreneurs since 2016. This year, six trailblazers in the ICT sector were honoured with The Daily Star ICT Awards 2021 for their works in the sector and their contribution to the development of country's IT sector and the society.

Sadia Haque, CEO and co-founder of ShareTrip Limited

DIGITAL COMMERCE OF THE YEAR 2021

Winner: ShareTrip Limited

Anyone planning to go for a trip looks for the best packages to explore the best destinations. ShareTrip is there to help travellers.

The online travel aggregator provides travel services through its dynamic app that allows a traveller to book flights, hotels and find suitable holiday packages around the globe.

ShareTrip has a business to business portal to serve the business travel segment.

The online platform claims to occupy 12 percent of the entire travel market.

Backed by state-owned venture Startup Bangladesh, ShareTrip is expected to grow by 2.5 times by the end of next year.

In 2014, the company started its journey as Travel Booking Bangladesh (TBBD).

In 2019, it officially rebranded TBBD to ShareTrip as an end-to-end tech-based travel solution provider.

ShareTrip has grown from a small company of three people to employing 180 plus people in Dhaka and all across the country.

The company currently has more than 24 lakh users.

Hosne Ara Jasmine, senior vice president of BJIT Group

ICT SOLUTION PROVIDER OF THE YEAR 2022 (INTERNATIONAL MARKET FOCUS)

Winner: BJIT Group

BJIT Limited began its journey in 2001 as a software solution provider founded by JM Shwakat Akbar, who moved to Japan in his early 20s after getting a scholarship.

BJIT is an award-winning global IT company offering high-end IT solutions, including outsourcing, remote development, and 360-degree project management.

BJIT has 750+ skilled engineers and operating in 7 global offices located in Japan, Finland, Singapore, The USA, Sweden, Bangladesh and The Netherlands.

BJIT has worked on more than 2,000 projects, including artificial intelligence, fintech, blockchain, mechanical design and other customised services.

The company is currently working with renowned organisations such as Sony, BMW, Qualcomm, Kyocera and NTT Docomo.

BJIT continues its successful journey in providing high-quality services to the global IT Industry and providing employment to hundreds of national graduates.

Leading American IT review platform Clutch gave BJIT a 5-star rating for its outstanding performance in delivering quality offshore software products across the globe.

Azmal Haque Azim, director of Digicon Technologies Limited

ICT SOLUTION PROVIDER OF THE YEAR 2021 (LOCAL MARKET FOCUS)

Winner: Digicon Technologies Limited

Digicon Technologies Ltd, an outsourcing organisation, has been working for more than 11 years in Bangladesh.

One of the leading business process outsourcing companies of Bangladesh, Digicon extends various services, including customer interaction services, back-office services, skill development trainings and IT solutions.

It serves various public and private sector organisations in the fields of consumer electronics, banking and finance, healthcare, telecommunication utility and automobiles.

The company provided services for operations management of Dhaka-Chattogram highway's digital monitoring system, national emergency services, contact centre services of the land ministry, Sonali Bank, the Directorate General of Family Planning and Bangladesh Power Development Board.

The company is also the recipient of the Grameenphone's "The Service Excellence Award 2020".

Fahad Ifaz, co-founder and CEO of iFarmer, 

ICT STARTUP OF
THE YEAR 2022

Winner: iFarmer

iFarmer is a full-stack agriculture platform that is a one-stop solution for small holder farmers.

It facilitates retail and institutional funders to finance the farmers and enables them to access quality agri-inputs through partnerships with agri-input companies and retailers.

It also works to create better market access for the farmers by aggregating products from the farmers and selling them to institutional buyers, retailers, and wholesale markets.

Since its inception in January 2019, the company has facilitated 2.6 crore of smallholder farmers in Bangladesh.

iFarmer raised $2.1 million in equity investment and secured a fund of $500,000 from the United Nations.

iFarmer's revenue rose to $47 million in 2022 from $30,000 in 2019. It is now operating in 22 districts through a "Phygital" model.

Late Luna Shamsuddoha

ICT PIONEER

Winner: Late Luna Shamsuddoha

Late Luna Shamsuddoha was a leading software entrepreneur of Bangladesh, who breathed her last in February 2021.

The brilliant businesswoman was the chairperson of leading IT and software company Dohatec New Media, which has been developing solutions for enterprise clients in North America, Asia and Europe for over 25 years.

Luna started Dohatec New Media in 1992 along with a core team of engineering academics and professionals.

The former director of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services played an instrumental role along with Dohatec to create Bangladesh's digital public procurement platform.

Dohatec was also involved in the development of a voter enrolment solution in 2007-08.

The firm developed several e-governance projects and the electronic government procurement system that ensures transparency of government procurement.

She was also appointed as the first female chairperson of state-owned Janata Bank in 2018 as she had sound knowledge in finance and economics.

Moynul Haque Siddiqui, chairman of Fiber@Home

ICT BUSINESS PERSON
OF THE YEAR 2022

Winner: Moynul Haque Siddiqui, chairman, Fiber@Home

Prominent entrepreneur of ICT and textile sectors Moynul Haque Siddiqui completed his graduation from the business faculty of the Dhaka University in 1986.

He is founder director of Fiber@Home, a nationwide telecommunication transmission network operator that provides services to the telcos, cable television and internet service providers.

Siddiqui has been leading the Fiber@Home as managing director and chairman since 2009.

Apart from the Fiber@Home, he is also the founder of BDCOM Online Ltd, a company listed with Dhaka Stock Exchange and Chittagong Stock Exchange.

He also founded Norban Communications Ltd, an IT and telecom solutions provider.

He is a founder director of Asia Pacific General Insurance Company Limited, which is also a listed company.

"ICT has empowered us with improved communication and collaboration. Our productivity and efficiency in various industries have gone up."

Selim RF Hussain

CEO & Managing Director, BRAC Bank Limited

"Globally, the most wonderful successes are now coming from the ICT and digital sector. ICT is also a great success story for Bangladesh and it could have been much greater." 

Mahfuz Anam, editor & publisher, The Daily Star

"A lot of initiatives were taken to develop the ICT sector but Bangladesh could not reach its destination."

 Md Sabur Khan, chairman, Daffodil International University 

"Achieving IT export target of $5 billion is challenging, but we will be able to pull off the target if local companies get adequate support."

Russell T. Ahmed, president, BASIS