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DHAKA, Sept 9 (AFP) - Bangladesh, which has been seeking to boost its information technology sector, aims to earn 100 million dollars in export earnings from its new IT park by 2005.

Muhammad Yunus, the chief of the Grameen Bank, is the man behind the Grameen IT Park Ltd. in the suburbs of Dhaka.

"The GITP, a one-stop centre with capacity totalling 150,000 square feet of floor space, has been designed exclusively for export-oriented IT industry," said Sohel Sharif, the company's managing director.

"We expect to earn 100 million dollars in exports by 2005."

GITP chairman Yunus said Bangladesh needed to rapidly develop its IT industry.

"We need a start in IT ... so far we could not see any significant achievement in this field when all other countries have gone way ahead," Yunus

Referring to his Grameen mobile phone operation which covers most of Bangladesh, he said "we have to make a cyber country."

The state-run Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) last year started work on providing Internet facilities to all the country's 64 districts to seize IT opportunities.

The Infobahon project worth nearly 30 million Taka (about 1.65 million dollars) was awaiting approval by the Planning Commission, an official said.

The official said the project would cut the costs for Internet service providers, subscribers and help build a quality data network nationwide.

Over the past several years the BTTB has developed a national transmission backbone based on fiber optic and digital microwave systems.

Sharif said GITP would establish itself as a network service provider and the park is equipped with a high-speed network backbone.

"The GITP is a full member of the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre and seven companies have already registered with us," he added.

Some 100 ISPs now operate in Bangladesh with an estimated 80,000 subscribers in Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong, officials said.

Imports of computers and accessories were earlier exempted from duty.

Another 10-million-dollar IT park is to be set up in Dhaka by the government with facilities to develop software and other IT related industry, council director Abdus Sobhan told AFP.

A group of Bangladeshi investors aims to invest 96 million dollars to set up an IT centre in southeastern Chittagong district and would offer a number of incentives, including equipment and venture capital, an investor said.

The group planned to spend 75 million dollars on the fibre optic connection and another 21 million dollars on developing infrastructure, he added.

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