Showing posts with label Bangladesh's IT Industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bangladesh's IT Industry. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Freelancing, A new sun at economics


What exactly is “Freelancing”?
Freelancing is basically a different way to work. Rather than being employed by a company in one specific job, freelancers are self-employed and find work via a variety of sources. Clients hire a freelancer to complete a task, project, or service for
them. Freelancers often work on a range of projects at any one time for various clients. Freelancers are responsible for paying their own tax, pension, etc,
and managing their own time, priorities, and workload. Freelancers can work from anywhere, but many work from home, from “freelancing hubs”, or coffee shops.
How does freelancing work?
Like any other career or trade, freelancing does move on to give and take system. To combine buyers and sellers at one place, there are freelance portals. Both (buyers and sellers) need to make their account to get started. Buyers post their need; freelancer bid for the project, then buyer chooses the freelancer from a long list of bidders. When the work is submitted, buyer reviews the work, and pays the payment to freelance portal, which next pays the money to freelancer after some deductions (that deduction is the source of revenue of these freelancer portals).
What work does a freelancer do?
Fields where freelancers work are predominantly in music, writing, acting, computer programming, web design, translating, illustrating, film, video production, and other forms of work which some cultural theorists consider as central to the cognitive-cultural economy. A freelancer can also be a self-employed person offering services,
usually to businesses and often to multiple clients at a time. The type of work freelancers does vary. Nearly every type of service a business would need could be provided by a freelancer, including but not limited to marketing, such as social media marketing, copywriting, publicity, writing, technological support, such as programming, interior design, graphic design, and bookkeeping.
Market place of a freelancer
1. Fiverr — Fiverr is a little bit different from another freelancing website. There a lot of companies post their projects so freelancer can apply, but in Fiverr, you will create gigs if you have good gigs you will find freelancing job easily.
2. Vemploy — Vemploy is a new but very popular freelancing website. This site is very simple to use you will just write a proposal for the job and you will submit it. You can also create your portfolio on this website.
3. Freelancer — Hire & Find Jobs — this is a world largest marketplace. This provides a lot of freelance jobs for the users. You can find hourly, home-based and full-time jobs on this website. This site is very easy to use you will just browse the job and you will find a list of jobs.
4. Up Work — this is a very popular website in the whole world. Up work connects the companies with more than 10 million of freelancers who are searching freelancing jobs.
5. Krop — A job-search board and portfolio builder in one, Krop allows creative and tech professionals to put together personalized websites showcasing their skills to employers. The site features a mix of full-time, part-time and freelance work, searchable by location and keywords.
Who Hires for Freelance Jobs
As you can nowadays, a huge variety of companies, organization, and
government agencies are hire freelancer. The freelance jobs vary from
small, temporary projects to long-term, full-time projects. Nowadays
freelance marketplace provide freelance job as they have client and
required freelancer to complete those project here you find bulk
requirements with different clients.
How Freelancing Is Different than Being an Employee?
Freelancers are responsible for all sorts of things that traditional “employees” are not, such as setting their work hours, keeping track of time spent on different projects, billing clients, and paying their own employment and business taxes. Freelancers are not considered “employees” by the companies they work for, but rather “contractors.”
Other Ways to Say “Freelance Jobs”
When you are searching for freelance jobs, there are a number of different terms to be
aware of. These can be used to help you to find freelance job openings.
Freelance job: A widely-used term to find freelance jobs.
Contract work: Jobs where you’re a work as a temporary contract worker, rather than a permanent employee.
Independent contractor: Another common way to say
freelancer. Your work terms are specified by a contract with another
company or individual. This is how the IRS classifies this type of work.
Contract-to-hire: A job that begins as a freelance, independent
contractor position but has the potential to become a regular employee
position if things go well.

What does it take to be a freelancer?

Step 1: What skills have you to offer The first step is to ask yourself what specific skills do you possess and what services you can offer. Being skilled at ardening or servicing kitchen chimneys won’t be of much help, as in this context we
are talking about services that can be delivered online. So we need to look for skills that are Internet friendly. Does that mean you need to be a techie? Certainly
not. For example, You may be a wizard in creative writing. The Internet is flooded with opportunities for writers. There are so many websites that are constantly on the lookout for good writers, and you can be a good fit.
If your English speaking skills are superb then you can work as a voice over artist
for animation videos and promotional ads. The animated videos and ads that you see
on the Internet are made by graphics and animation specialists, but to make the
characters speak they need human voice. This is where you fit in. The speaking
skills in this type of work, of course, take into account voice modulation,
pronunciation, clarity of voice, neutral accent, etc.
If you are thorough with American, British or Australian accent, you can take up transcription jobs, which, again, are available in plenty.
Step 2: Basic computer knowledge or IT trained If you are computer savvy then you have a myriad of options open. Now here again there is a question you need to pose — have you learned web designing, software programming, graphics animation? Are you trained in any of these fields? If your answer is in the affirmative then you should go for the appropriate kind of jobs in accordance with your specialization. If
you belong to this category then you are the best of the lot and have the highest prospects. Once a client signs you up, win him over. Perform so well that whenever in the future he needs something done he comes to you as the first choice. Tasks in this zone may comprise of simple things like data entry, web scraping, MS Word or Excel-based work, live chat support, and a variety of other tasks that can be performed online.
Step 3: Set up your profile If you are clear on these two steps then you are ready to go. Now sign up at a popular freelancing platform and set up your profile. This includes putting up your resume and going through the rules and regulations. Highlight your plus points in your profile, but be sure to be honest. Keep in mind that a genuine freelancing site will allow you to set up your profile without charging any fee. A site which makes you pay even before you have earned anything is certainly not the right type!
Step 4: Start bidding on jobs Now that your profile is set, it is time to
start posting applications. In other words, you’ll now be bidding on jobs. Watch the
board for jobs being posted and apply for the ones you think you can do. To get an
idea about the pricing point see the standards of other bidders on the same job. That will give you an idea of what price to set for a job. Keep your applications brief and to-the-point. The key here is to think from the employer’s perspective.
So if freelance work interests you, register today at any one of the top job sites , and start bidding. As a beginner your focus should be on building a reputable profile. In other words, getting good feedback should be given priority over anything else in the formative stage of your freelance career. This is how you go about freelancing online.

What is freelance economy?

The freelance economy, also known as the gig economy, revolves around hiring self-employed workers to undertake specific jobs in return for an agreed upon payment. Freelancers are the individuals who make themselves available to be hired for such emporary work. They may find jobs through classified ads or through temporary staffing agencies. But the internet has created the current boom in freelance work, in fields s varied as commercial design, hotel management (through Airbnb) and taxi driving through ridesharing apps like Lyft and Uber).

Contribution to the economy of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the 2nd largest source of online workers . According to Oxford Internet Institute (OII) of Oxford University in the UK, Bangladesh now contributes 16.8% of all outsourced online workers in the world, a rate which is second only to India on 24.6%.
Of the Bangladeshi outsourcing workers, 22% work in software development and technology, representing 3.7% of all online freelancers in the world.
The majority (about 40%, or 6.8% of the world total) work in sales and marketing support. About a quarter work in creative multimedia (4.2% in the global context).
Similarly, about 3% work in writing and translation, 7% in clerical and data entry
and 2% in professional services (representing 0.5%, 1.3% and 0.4% of all freelancers on the web).

World Economy

Today, Freelancers represents 35% of the United States workforce. In the European Union, the rate is 16.1%.
Both figures demonstrate the same global trend. Freelancing is often portrayed as liberating, empowering, and even glamorous, but the reality is
far more complex.
In OECD countries, studies show that these individuals work chiefly in the service sector (50% of men and 70% of women).

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Bangladesh's IT Industry



Bangladesh's IT Industry

Information Technology (IT) gives fast, easy access to information which is essential for the development of a nation. Large IT companies are opening around the world, and nations are building up IT platforms, developing and promoting their IT industries. Asian countries are also becoming stakeholders in this boom by creating conducive environments, drawing global IT companies to invest there. Existing giants like Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, etc. are making massive investments in Asian countries to utilize the cost advantage. Bangladesh, with its huge under-utilized manpower (cheaper than India, Malaysia, and China), can also benefit from these initiatives, provided an established foreign investment platform with a nationwide IT infrastructure and skilled labor force is created.
Considerable achievements in the IT sector have already been made over several years towards building a 'Digital Bangladesh' and more initiatives are coming. However, to fully capitalize on the opportunities offered by the worldwide IT expansion, Bangladesh should thrust heavily towards further developing the IT sector to draw the attention of foreign investors competing with other technologically advanced/well-invested Asian countries. At the same time, we should encourage our entrepreneurs to launch IT companies here. Both these efforts would create hundreds of thousands of IT jobs and, consequently, help Bangladesh become a middle-income country by 2021.
The idea is to repeat the success of the RMG sector (which has created millions of jobs, though mainly lower-skill/lower-wage, and billions in foreign exchange), and significantly increase higher skill IT jobs to attract the youth, along with billions in foreign exchange, thus accelerating the growth of Bangladesh.
 Emerging Asian countries like India, China, Malaysia, etc. have opted for digitization to exploit opportunities offered by the Digital Age and catch up with technologically advanced countries. These countries have heavily invested in IT sectors, reaping considerable benefits in higher employment/income, and accelerating growth. For example, continuous growth of the IT sector in Malaysia, fully supported by the government, has created 800 new IT companies with over 98,000 new jobs, while 200 foreign companies have set up regional centers in Malaysia, bringing billions of dollars in investment and creating significant new jobs. Indian IT industry growth was spurred by huge foreign investment, contributing significantly to India's GDP growth. It is estimated that the outsourcing sector has a worldwide market of USD 500 billion; India's share is USD 140 billion compared to Bangladesh's USD 700 million.
Bangladesh can draw on the experiences of these countries to design and implement a rapid IT promotion strategy tailored to her own resources/objectives. The government can consider the following strategy to complement the ongoing 'Digital Bangladesh', which will accelerate the IT industry and utilize this sector as a platform for sustainable growth. Through injecting a major investment of USD 1.0 billion over five years (USD 200 million per year), the government can accelerate progress in this sector. This strategy can intensify efforts in specific areas: (a) Speeding up IT training/skills; (b) Actively attracting international IT companies/investors (Google, Intel, etc.) to establish IT centres (R&D, Service); and (c) Helping Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to start IT companies by providing funds/incubation, sales/business development/marketing support.
The proposed strategy can generate the two main positive outcomes that will set Bangladesh towards the goal of sustainable growth: one is the creation of high paid IT jobs, further leading to the expansion of small Bangladeshi IT companies, while the second is to generate a massive inflow of foreign exchange through Foreign Direct Investment.
Moreover, this could also lead to the creation of high-income jobs that would encourage foreign trained Bangladeshis to return (thereby reversing the brain-Drain), who can contribute to R&D, and help attract foreign companies to come. The IT industry also uses higher skill, pay better, can be more stable with greater potential for growth than the RMG sector, which is more vulnerable to lower cost regions in Asia and Africa. Development of a more professional sector will encourage youth to seek better education/IT training, generating higher income. Bangladesh can also receive huge remittances from exporting IT labor.
As the mobile phone sector in Bangladesh is well-developed, ICT-related service trade will progress, particularly in business process outsourcing (BPO). Development of other businesses and industries through computerization of the business process can lower costs significantly, increasing productivity and profitability.

The government can accelerate investments in English and IT education starting at primary schools to scale up this industry. Enabling conditions such as improving transportation, communication, the physical infrastructure of major IT hubs, installing work ethics, transparency, accountability laws, strengthening regulatory roles, and ensuring homeland security can turn Bangladesh into a popular investment destination.