DataSoft goes global

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=181249

DataSoft goes global
Software maker sets up joint investment venture in UAE

Mahboob Zaman, managing director of leading software maker DataSoft, and Khamis Mohammed Buharoon, chairman of Burooj Properties, attend a press conference in Dhaka yesterday to announce a UAE-based new venture. Photo: STAR

Star Business Report

Leading software maker DataSoft has formed a UAE-based joint venture company, DataSoft Arabia LLC, bringing good news to Bangladeshi IT firms, officials said yesterday.

Mahboob Zaman, managing director of DataSoft, and Khamis Mohammed Buharoon, chairman of Burooj Properties of UAE, signed the agreement in Dhaka yesterday.

DataSoft owns a 49 percent stake in DataSoft Arabia, while the remaining stake belongs to three individual investors based in the UAE. Both sides plan to invest $10 million in the new venture in the next three years, Zaman said.

“The new company will start working on May 1,” said Zaman at a press conference.

Thanks to the agreement, DataSoft has gone global, said Zaman. He was exploring opportunities abroad when Gartner, an information technology research organisation, declared Bangladesh as an IT outsourcing destination among 30 countries.

He said the Middle East is a huge market for Bangladeshi IT firms that would create a lot of jobs for IT students. It will also create job opportunities for the Arabic language graduates of Bangladesh to work in the call centres of telecom and health services.

Buharoon said Bangladesh holds out bright hopes for investment. “Knowledge and experience will be shared by both the parties,” he said. Buharoon said he is interested to invest in Bangladesh’s power sector as well.

Zahid Hossain, a non-resident Bangladeshi staying in the Middle East for the last 30 years, worked for the new venture which he said would open doors to young Bangladeshis.

The prime focus of the company is to market products and services offered by DataSoft Systems in Bangladesh. The new venture will have the service delivery capability in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) area by localising DataSoft service solutions for the Arabian market in the banking and financial institutes, money market such as brokerage house, merchant bank, fund managers and portfolio investment solution.