Press Release: BIBC Opening

Subject: Bangladesh opens an ICT Business Center in Silicon Valley

For Immediate Release - 2003

Santa Clara, California, USA, March 18, 2003 - The American Association of Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects Silicon Valley today announced the opening of the Bangladesh ICT Business Center (BICTBC) in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, CA. The BICTBC project is financed by the World Bank and assisted by the local Non-resident Bangladeshis. This center will provide a shared office facility for Bangladeshi software and IT companies in Silicon Valley.

" This will be a golden opportunity for Bangladeshi software and IT companies who can now take full advantage of this BICTBC office to establish direct business relationships with the USA companies," said Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim, President AABEA Central Executive Committee (CEC).

The BICTBC office facilities consist of 2000 square feet premises, which include a number of shared office rooms and conference rooms, with high tech services and supports. The Business Centers is outfitted with a broadband connection, servers and PCs. Each member company will have a dedicated telephone line, web link and email access to establish business links in USA.

The Bangladesh Government Ministry of Commerce initiated the BICTBC project, with the assistance of the Project Coordination Unit (PCU) of the Bangladesh Export Diversification Project (BDXDP). The objective of BDXDP is to promote greater diversification, value added, and growth in the export sector.

An Advisory committee together with AABEA management committee will provide supervision for the project. Chairman of the management committee, AABEA Silicon Valley Chapter President Mr. Jahangir Dewan mentioned, "As a group of qualified expatriate Bangladeshis, we are pleased to offer our help to further advance Bangladesh in the Information Technology area. Local presence is crucial to win any business, and the large membership of AABEA is honored with the opportunity to give their best efforts".

Mr. Enayetur Rahman, a veteran of the high-tech industry in the US has been appointed Director of Operations of BICTBC. Mr. Rahman was a key coordinator for the SBIT'2000 (www.sbit.org) conference that provided momentum for Bangladeshi IT companies to explore business in USA.

Mr. Enayetur Rahman summarized the aims of the center: "We have lofty goals to achieve export targets in the IT area, but we have to start out by helping the Bangladeshi companies. That is why the primary goal of the office is to be a shared business office where different Bangladeshi companies can set up their local presence in North America. We are thankful to the World Bank and the Bangladesh Government to make this endeavor a reality. We seek the help of all concerned resident and non-resident Bangladeshis and sincere well- wishers to make our efforts successful. Details of some of our marketing outreach and training-based confidence-building measures will be made public soon, and we welcome any suggestions to make our mission successful."

For more information on BICTBC please contact AABEASV: info@bictbc.org.

Copyright 2003 AABEA Silicon Valley. All rights reserved.

About BICTBC:
The BICTBC is a shared office in Silicon Valley and is a brainchild of SBIT2000. The shared office services have been designed to cater to Bangladeshi ICT companies who need satellite office-space in Silicon Valley in order to develop business in USA by closely working with the customers.

BICTBC aims to promote the growth of Bangladesh software exports to the USA by:

§ Providing a shared office and amenities such as meeting room and broadband access in Silicon Valley, California, USA, in order to provide a physical presence in a major international market for software products and services

§ Providing sales and marketing assistance for Bangladeshi IT companies, including market research, help in responding to RFPs, etc.

§ Provide a single source of information on IT services and industry in Bangladesh.

§ Provide information and guidance to Bangladeshi companies to achieve expertise in latest marketable technologies and also certifications such as CMM/ISO 9000

§ Provide assistance to GOB to attract the Silicon Valley high tech Companies to establish design and development Centers in Bangladesh.

§ Help Bangladeshi companies access the expertise and market presence of the non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) community in the ICT industries in the USA

§ Allow a focal point for NRBs to process, in a formal way, business opportunities that they become aware of that may be of interest to Bangladeshi software exporters.
BICTBC Contact Information:
Mr. Enayetur Rahman
Director of Operations
4699 Old Ironsides Drive. Suite 370, Santa Clara, CA 95054.
Phone: (408) 969-0936, Fax: (408) 969-2667, Email: mer@bictbc.org

About AABEA:
AABEA was established in 1984 in the State of Pennsylvania. It is a non-profit, non-political, and non-religious Tax-exempt voluntary scientific and technical professional organization organized exclusively for educational, scientific, and charitable programs. AAABEA presently has nine chapters: Southern California, Tristate, Washington DC, New England, Seattle, North Texas, Silicon Valley, Arizona and Central Ohio.

The AABEA, Silicon Valley (AABEASV) chapter was established in 1999, is a part of the parent organization AABEA, but geared towards the vibrant Bangladeshi community in Silicon Valley.

For more information and activities of AABEA please visit:
www.aabea.org, www.aabeasv.org

For questions about AABEASV please send queries to info@aabea.org

AABEA Contact Information:
Jahangir Dewan
Chairman, BICTBC Technical/Management Committee, President, AABEA Silicon Valley Chapter
Phone: 408-446 1972, Email: jjjdewan@aabea.org
http://www.bictbc.org