The country's largest exposition of software and ICT-enabled services ended yesterday with a promise to earn $5 billion foreign currency a year by 2021.

After a gap of four years Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) organised the four-day event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. About 140 local and some foreign companies took part in the fair.

Some local companies booked spot orders at the show but their value could not be known. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said the government is trying to brand Bangladesh as a 'digital country'. State Minister for Telecom Tarana Halim said they have taken a number of initiatives in the last few years to boost digitisation.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, the state minister for ICT, said the government is working with the private sector to create a business-friendly environment for the IT sector.

He said the ICT industry will reach the target of exporting $1 billion worth of products by next year and that of $5 billion by 2021.

BASIS leaders said the value of the global software market is around $3 trillion a year and the trade body is working with the government to expand the footprint of the local software firms abroad.

Bangladesh Bank and ICT Division are jointly working to ensure security of local financial institutions and developing local cloud services, said Tareq Barkatullah, project director of the ICT Division's data centre.

The government should run campaigns to raise awareness of the use of software for financial transactions, Debdulal Roy, general manager of the Information Systems Development Department at Bangladesh Bank, said at a seminar on the sidelines of the fair.

In another seminar on data security in the payment ecosystem, Kabir Bin Anwar, project director of the Access to Information (a2i) project of the Prime Minister's Office, stressed the need for a common payment platform.

BASIS President Mustafa Jabbar chaired the closing session of the programme.