"The Bangladesh ICT (information communication technology) business centre in the Silicon Valley will open on Sunday," M. Rasheduzzaman, a software engineer who is involved in setting up the centre, told AFP.

A delegation led by Commerce Secretary Sohel Ahmed will travel to the US to mark the opening of the centre which will display Bangladeshi-made software.

The World Bank will provide 400,000 dollars in funding for the outlet, IT sources said.

Software exports at the moment are around 30 million dollars a year, but the government has set a target of two billion dollars by 2006.

SPACE.WIRE