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Tuesday | September 29, 2026 | Dhaka

Creative industry rising very fast

 New Nation
 Published: 12:00 AM, 16 December 2015

Shah Alam Nur :
Country’s creative industry has been rising very fast as every year a large number of people entering in the sector.
It is now an estimated 120 billion taka industry. Currently, it employs at least 300,000 people.
The creative industry comprises radio and television advertisements, event management and public relations, digital media companies, software, mobile apps, animation, movies, plays and programmes of the entertainment industry and so on.
While these are viewed as separate sectors in the country, in other countries these are seen together as the creative industry. In many countries this creative economy is massive.
Several Asian countries, including Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam, have absorbed the culture of creative industry long back in 1990s.
“We are reached a creative age where many of us make a living by selling our intellect. Even 15 years ago this was unthinkable. Our creative industry rising very fast,” Munir Ahmed Khan, General Secretary of Advertising Agencies Association of Bangladesh (AAB) told The New Nation on Monday.
He said for a few decades now advertisements have been made for radio and television. Then there are billboards and newspaper ads.
There are over 500 advertising agencies in Bangladesh, ranging in size and standard. About 10 to 16 of these agencies control half of the country’s entire advertising market. This sector employs about ten thousand people.
Syed Gausul Alam, Managing Director of Grey Advertising Bangladesh said the market for advertising is growing in volume by 10 per cent a year.
He said in some cases the ad agencies make the advertisements themselves, in some cases they use production houses.
There are about 15 large production houses in the country that make advertisements, he said.
All together, large and small, there are about 60 such production houses making advertisements. Just 10 years ago 30 per cent of the commercial advertisements used to be made in India. Now 99 per cent adds are made locally.
Vice President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) Tasleem Ahmed said, “Software is one of the most rapidly expanding sectors of the country. People are coming forward to work in animation, mobile apps, graphics and other such creative fields.”
He said software is now a huge field of creativity. Over 750 companies in this sector are members of the BASIS.
These companies, he said, employ about 100,000 persons. There are over 150 companies in this sector outside of BASIS. Again, there are about 70,000 freelancers in the sector.