Bangladesh & India to work jointly to ensure cyber security
Indian Ambassador to Dhaka Prannoy Verma paid a courtesy call to State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak on Thursday morning. The meeting discussed how Bangladesh-India can move forward on the basis of partnership. In addition to the ongoing cooperation aimed at the priority plans of the government in the next 5 years, new plans were also discussed.
According to the sources of the meeting, an international cyber drill will be held soon to clear the cyber skies of the two countries. There were also discussions on increasing Indian investment in the private sector of data center construction, postal, telecom and ICT. In this regard, more attention will be given to accelerate the Bangladesh-India startup bridge. On the contrary, Bangladesh will stand by the country in building Digital India. And India will stand by Bangladesh in building Smart Bangladesh.
State Minister for Posts, Telecom and ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said after the meeting, Bangladesh and India will work together to keep the cyber world safe.
“A final agreement is expected to be signed in this regard between the two countries in the next three to six months,” he said.
Palak was talking to journalists after a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma at the Secretariat on Thursday.
He said the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on cyber security five years ago.
“A team of Indian cyber security experts visited Bangladesh three months ago. It was discussed that it was important for the two countries to work together in this regard.”
He expressed Bangladesh's ambitious goal of achieving a $5 billion export in the IT sector and creating 1 million jobs for young professionals in the next five years.
The state minister emphasized the importance of attracting investments in the postal, telecommunication, and IT sectors.
He said that Bangladesh aims to collaborate with India to display itself as an advanced and economically prosperous nation globally.
Palak highlighted that in the past five years, Bangladesh has received significant investments in startups, primarily from the United States, India, Singapore, and Japan.
He underlined the strong ties between Bangladesh and India, citing India's substantial support during Bangladesh's Liberation War.
The junior minister also said that 12 high-tech parks will be constructed in Bangladesh with Indian Line of Credit (LoC) and those will start operation by 2025.
After the meeting, the Indian high commissioner said significant discussions were held on various issues of the ICT sector.
"India will stand by Bangladesh to build the smart Bangladesh. And both countries will work together on cyber security," Verma said.
He added: "We also discussed on how to make the youth more tech-savvy and work-oriented and how to make digital payments".
The people of both countries have benefited from the enhanced mutual relations between India and Bangladesh over the past 10 years, Verma said, adding that this relationship will continue in the future.
