Bangladesh: Improving Computer and Software Engineering Tertiary Education Project

Education / Tertiary

Bangladesh has achieved more than 6.0% annual economic growth since 2011 and recorded 7.9% economic growth in FY2018. The stable economic growth has been driven by ready-made garment sector export, strong consumption, and public investment. Sustaining economic growth requires diversifying the economic base and creating new sources of growth. Digital Bangladesh has been an integral part of the national development strategy since 2010, and the government expects the information technology (IT) industry to make a significant contribution to the economy. IT sector development will generate new growth opportunities, creating a large number of jobs, increase economy-wide productivity, and improve service delivery through e-government initiatives.

Bangladesh's IT industry is nascent, with two-thirds of firms established since 2000. Most of the firms are small - about 88% have less than 100 personnel - and are mostly engaged in the lower end of the value chain. The industry faces several challenges, the most critical of which is the lack of skilled human resources. With the increasing push for cost-competitiveness and the advent of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, the IT industry is facing enormous opportunities and challenges globally. Companies across the world are increasing their focus on R&D, the speed of execution, product quality, and services. The search for new age skills such as machine learning engineers, application development analysts, back-end developers, and data scientists, as well as up-skilling and re-skilling existing personnel, are the industry's top priorities. The IT industry hires about 15,000 people per year, of whom one-third are CSE/IT degree holders. Many universities offer CSE/IT degree programs, producing about 12,000 graduates per year, but more than 80% of job seekers fail written tests on basic coding skills, mathematics, and English. For mid-level skills such as testing, business analysis, and project management, the industry cannot find domestic talent and hires from neighboring countries at higher wages. This undermines business profitability and limits the domestic talent pool for existing and new business opportunities.

Modern learning, research, and start-up facilities established

Quality and industry relevance of CSE/IT programs enhanced

Research and development and technology entrepreneur-ship strengthened

Tertiary education project design and management capacity strengthened

Individual consultant selection 575 person-months $6,473,431

Consultant qualification selection 110 person-months $420,000

Quality- and cost-based selection 250 person-months $1,340,000