Call centre, a prospective business field

Call centre has become one of the fastest growing business fields in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has set a target of making business process outsourcing (BPO) a billion dollar business within 2021, said state minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak.

‘BPO is a growing sector in Bangladesh and we have lots of elements to develop this sector even more. We have fixed a target of creating 0.1 million jobs in this sector in the upcoming days,’ he added.

The primary functions of call centres are to note down the complaints of customers and make the respective companies aware of the complaints. Along with this service, the call centres also provide data processing service, medical trascription service, and prepare reports as well.

Call centre business first started in 2007 with only two centres in Bangladesh. Today almost 100 organisations are in this business according to a research report conducted by Bangladesh ICT Journalist Forum (BIJF), said the acting president of the organization Tariq Rahman. It is a $180 million industry now.

According to a Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) report, there are 96 call centres operating in Bangladesh at present; 26 of them are giving service in national territory, the other 70 are providing services to foreign companies. BTRC has given license to 377 companies.

A total of eight countries are taking services from these call centres. The biggest customers are USA, UK and Australia. The next big customer would be Japan, said the call centre entrepreneurs.

Dhaka WASA has already outsourced its customer care service. The hotline 16162 will receive complaints and provide information to consumers.