Bangladesh will jointly develop a small satellite with ISRO: Palak
Bangladesh will develop small satellites jointly with Indian Space Research Organization ISRO. The Minister of State for Posts, Telecom and IT conveyed the matter while responding to the questions of the journalists after the meeting with the Ambassador of France Marie Masdupoui at the Secretariat on Monday (June 24). In response to another question, claiming that 5 million people of the country are involved in online gambling, Palak said, 'Our children of different ages have been involved in serious risks in online gambling. Even many older, retired persons are getting into it. Analyzing the data, we have seen how 5 million people are involved with these illegal gambling sites. We blocked a total of 2600 gambling sites. Now we are constantly blocking mobile apps. It is a continuous process, and will continue.
In response to the question that closed gambling sites are being opened in a different way, the state minister said that we sat together on that. We sat down with the Department of Telecom, the National Telecom Monitoring Centre, the Computer Council, the BTRC and the Cyber Security Agency in this regard. The police and the intelligence, all of whom have the capacity, are collectively giving a drive. We will continue to block it by applying more and more powerful technologies. We are trying to block what we are getting in various sources including media.
In the meeting, the French ambassador urged to fulfill the promise of buying 10 Airbus during the French President's visit to Dhaka. In this regard, the Minister of State for Information Technology said that apart from Bangabandhu Satellite-1, Bangladesh will build 4 to 6 more satellites. In exchange for the sale of Airbus aircraft, France will provide technical and financial support to make these satellites through Bangladeshi workers.
Regarding this, Palak said, "Satellite company has made some proposals on behalf of Air Bus to build our skills, competences and capabilities. We are taking that into account. So that we can jointly assemble satellites in Bangladesh, develop skilled manpower in satellite technology, this is also an objective.'
Regarding the visit to India with the Prime Minister, the Minister of State said that we had two very important issues. One is the Vision Partnership Documents for Digital Partnerships. What India has is 'Developed India-2047'. Their being developed, high-income countries. And Prime Minister's Vision-2041, Smart Bangladesh, to be a developed Bangladesh. For this, we have signed a vision digital partnership document, a new kind of large-scale vision.
He said, 'They have ISRO – Indian Space Research Organization, which is doing quite well and Chandrayaan-3 has also successfully landed on the moon. We will jointly build a small satellite with them. Where they will donate around 50 crore rupees. And we will use about 50 of our boys and girls here in satellite making, who will visit ISRO, work with their business wing, do research work and we will jointly design the construction of some of their satellites. It will be the Earth Observatory Geo Spatial Satellite. Which will have a period of 5-6 years.'
Also, the Minister of State highlighted the recent bilateral meeting held with France's Airbus, School Forty-Two technology institute, France's Trade Minister and various technology institutes of the country and said that Bangladesh is interested in working deeply with France to build skilled manpower in future-oriented information technology. A delegation from Bangladesh visited France for this. We are going to create a new field with France.
The Chairman of Bangladesh Satellite Company Limited Dr. Shahjahan Mahmud and Post and Telecommunication Department Joint Secretary Dr. Rashida Ferdous were present among others in the meeting. According to the decision of the meeting, France will also cooperate with Bangladesh in cyber security, startup exchange, space technology, human resource development, capacity building and knowledge transfer.
