More and more global companies choose to outsource; individual freelancers demand 10pc incentive
Like a million others, Ridoy Saha was rendered unemployed within weeks after Bangladesh introduced a nationwide lockdown in March last year.
He returned to his village home as his employer, an ad agency, was closed. But unlike many others, he soon got back to work to make a living as the tasks he specialises in have not lost their demand globally.
He started working at Upwork, an American freelancing platform. What is more, his monthly income surged more than four times compared to the Tk 30,000 he used to take home while working for the ad agency.
"I am doing the same thing that I used to do for the agency -- graphics and animation. The first few weeks of the freelance work were challenging. Then I got some clients who liked my work and started giving me work regularly," Saha said.
Saha is not the lone freelancer who has been able to keep working during the pandemic. More companies across the globe are hiring them to cut payroll expenses.
This outsourcing trend has created a gold rush for many, especially youth and the people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic-induced economic slump.
Bangladesh has six lakh IT service exporters or freelancers, and the number of team-based freelancing companies hovers around 1,600. Together they fetch roughly $500 million annually, according to industry people.
Nahid Hasan, a freelancer, said the boom in e-commerce and the demand for online tools had created more business opportunities for freelancers. Besides, global businesses were trying to minimise costs.
He started his journey as a freelancer in 2010. Within a week, he hired one and established Bizcope.
In 2012, Hasan set up his first physical office and moved to a bigger one four years later. His team now consists of a workforce of 27 people.
Bizcope provides services such as search engine optimisation, digital marketing, web design and development, content writing, and digital content production.
"We serve both global and local markets," he said.
Suman Saha, who lives in Dhaka, began freelancing with Upwork while working at a private company in 2012.
At that time, he used to do website development and design and earned $5 per hour. Soon, he moved to projects that develop mobile and software quality assurance.
Now, his hourly income has shot to $25. His income went up by 25 to 30 per cent during the pandemic.
"If I am flooded with extra work, I transfer some of them to juniors working with me in a virtual team."
Freelancers who have not redesigned their services in line with the demand have suffered during the pandemic. For example, the travel and tourism-related IT service providers were hit significantly because of the slump in the sector, according to industry people.
Individual freelancers, however, continue to face difficulties in bringing home payments made by their international employers.
Before 2012, outsourcing income was transferred primarily through illegal channels. Although some of the money came through bank-to-bank wire transfer, it was costly.
That year, the Bangladesh Bank issued a notice, enabling freelancers to receive payments to their bank accounts via online payment gateway service providers (OPGSP)
A few months later, Bank Asia became the first lender in Bangladesh to take initiatives to channel freelancer's income in partnership Paiza Pay, an OPGSP.
Since Paiza has not established good connections with freelancing platforms, independent online workers could not repatriate much.
Later, the bank partnered with Payoneer, the second-largest OPGSP in the world, and launched its service in March 2015.
Bank Asia channels half of the funds that come through formal channels, according to freelancers and a BB official.
Freelancers have fetched $519 million through Bank Asia since 2014, according to Md Zia Arfin, the bank's head of the international division.
The inflow of payments through the private commercial bank increased more than 40 per cent year-on-year to $140 million in 2020.
In 2018, in partnership with the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and Mastercard, Bank Asia announced the launch of the 'Shadhin' card, the first-ever freelancer card in Bangladesh.
The card allows freelancers to receive payments directly from international employers.
Brac Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd and Sonali Bank also channel payments for freelancers.
The BB issued a notice in February, making it possible for IT freelancers to bring home small-value earnings through mobile financial services.
"Although there have been many options to bring money, the absence of the largest OPGSP, PayPal, has been a setback for freelancers as many clients prefer the platform," said Mahfuzur Rahman, general secretary of the Bangladesh Freelancers Development Society (BFDS).
INCENTIVE ISSUE
The government has been providing a 10 per cent cash assistance against the export of ICT products or services since 2018. But, only institutional IT and freelancing companies having membership with the BASIS are eligible.
In order to extend the facility to individual freelancers, a meeting was held in February in participation with the BASIS, the BFDS, Bank Asia, the finance ministry, the commerce ministry and the ICT ministry.
However, there has not been any concrete measure so far.
"The annual remittance of freelancers now stands at more than $500 million, and it will soon cross the $1-billion mark. Our foreign exchange earnings will increase if the incentive is given," said State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak.
In June, he wrote a letter to Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, requesting him to consider the incentive for individual freelancers.
"The incentive will also boost employment for the youth," Palak added.
Last year, he urged the central bank to extend the incentive to individual freelancers.
[TW]
大流行證明了 IT 自由職業者的福音
越來越多的跨國公司選擇外包；個人自由職業者要求 10pc 獎勵
與其他一百萬人一樣，在孟加拉國於去年 3 月實施全國封鎖，裡多伊·薩哈 (Ridoy Saha) 在數週內失業。
他的雇主——一家廣告公司——倒閉了，他回到了村子裡。但與許多其他人不同的是，他很快就重返工作崗位謀生，因為他擅長的工作並沒有在全球範圍內失去需求。
他開始在美國自由職業平台 Upwork 工作。更重要的是，與他過去為廣告公司工作時帶回家的 30,000 塔卡相比，他的月收入增長了四倍多。
“我正在做我過去為該機構做的同樣的事情——圖形和動畫。自由職業的前幾週很有挑戰性。然後我得到了一些喜歡我的工作並開始定期給我工作的客戶，”薩哈說。
薩哈並不是在大流行期間能夠繼續工作的唯一自由職業者。在全球範圍內，隨著危機凸顯了遠程工作的舒適性。全球越來越多的公司正在僱用他們來削減工資開支。
這種外包趨勢為許多人創造了淘金熱，尤其是年輕人和因大流行引起的經濟衰退而失業的人。
孟加拉國有 60 萬 IT 服務出口商或自由職業者，而以團隊為基礎的自由職業者公司的數量徘徊在 1,600 家左右。據業內人士稱，他們每年總共獲得大約 5 億美元的收入。
自由職業者納希德·哈桑 (Nahid Hasan) 表示，電子商務的繁榮和對在線工具的需求為自由職業者創造了更多商機。此外，全球企業正試圖將成本降至最低。
他於 2010 年開始了他的自由職業生涯。一周內，他僱傭了一個人並成立了 Bizcope。
2012 年，哈桑設立了他的第一個實體辦公室，四年後搬到了更大的辦公室。他的團隊現在由 27 人組成。
Bizcope 提供搜索引擎優化、數字營銷、網頁設計和開發、內容編寫和數字內容製作等服務。
“我們為全球和本地市場提供服務，”他說。
居住在達卡的蘇曼·薩哈 (Suman Saha) 於 2012 年在一家私營公司工作時開始與 Upwork 一起自由職業。
那時候他做網站開發和設計，每小時掙5美元。很快，他轉向開發移動和軟件質量保證的項目。
現在，他的每小時收入已飆升至 25 美元。在大流行期間，他的收入增加了 25% 至 30%。
“如果我被額外的工作淹沒，我會將其中一些轉移到虛擬團隊中與我一起工作的初級人員。”
沒有根據需求重新設計服務的自由職業者在大流行期間遭受了損失。例如，據業內人士稱，由於該行業的低迷，與旅遊相關的 IT 服務提供商受到了重大打擊。
然而，個體自由職業者在將其國際雇主支付的款項帶回家時仍面臨困難。
2012年以前，外包收入主要通過非法渠道轉移。儘管部分資金是通過銀行到銀行的電匯方式獲得的，但成本很高。
那一年，孟加拉國銀行發布了一項通知，使自由職業者能夠通過在線支付網關服務提供商 (OPGSP) 接收付款到他們的銀行賬戶
幾個月後，亞洲銀行成為孟加拉國第一家與 OPGSP 合作夥伴 Paiza Pay 主動引導自由職業者收入的貸方。
由於Paiza與自由職業平台沒有建立良好的聯繫，獨立的在線工作者無法遣返太多。
後來，該銀行與全球第二大 OPGSP Payoneer 合作，並於 2015 年 3 月推出了該服務。
據自由職業者和 BB 官員稱，亞洲銀行將一半的資金用於正規渠道。
據該銀行國際部門負責人 Md Zia Arfin 稱，自 2014 年以來，自由職業者通過亞洲銀行獲得了 5.19 億美元的收入。
2020 年，通過私人商業銀行的付款流入同比增長 40% 以上，達到 1.4 億美元。
2018 年，亞洲銀行與孟加拉國軟件和信息服務協會 (BASIS) 和萬事達卡合作，宣布推出“Shadhin”卡，這是孟加拉國有史以來第一張自由職業者卡。
該卡允許自由職業者直接從國際雇主那裡收到付款。
Brac 銀行、Dutch-Bangla 銀行有限公司和 Sonali 銀行也為自由職業者提供支付渠道。
BB 於 2 月發布通知，使 IT 自由職業者可以通過移動金融服務將小額收入帶回家。
孟加拉自由職業者發展協會 (BFDS) 秘書長 Mahfuzur Rahman 表示：“雖然有很多賺錢的選擇，但最大的 OPGSP PayPal 的缺席對自由職業者來說是一個挫折，因為許多客戶更喜歡這個平台。”
激勵問題
自 2018 年以來，政府一直為 ICT 產品或服務的出口提供 10% 的現金援助。但是，只有擁有 BASIS 會員資格的機構 IT 和自由職業公司才有資格。
為了將該設施擴展到個人自由職業者，2 月份舉行了一次會議，有 BASIS、BFDS、亞洲銀行、財政部、商務部和信息通信技術部參加。
但是，目前還沒有任何具體措施。
“自由職業者的年匯款額現在超過 5 億美元，很快就會突破 10 億美元大關。如果給予獎勵，我們的外匯收入將會增加，”信息通信技術部部長 Zunaid Ahmed Palak 說。
6 月，他給商務部長 Tipu Munshi 寫了一封信，要求他考慮對個人自由職業者的激勵措施。
“激勵措施還將促進青年就業，”帕拉克補充道。
去年，他敦促中央銀行將激勵措施擴大到個人自由職業者。
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