Palak urged the world leaders for mutual cooperation
Bangladesh Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak urged world leaders to work together to achieve self-reliance through mutual cooperation rather than competition. He made this call by participating in a panel discussion at the LEAP ministerial session in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night.
In this panel discussion held at the main stage of the conference, the speakers highlighted various strategies of economic empowerment through the use of information and communication technology.
Participating in the panel discussion, Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, now is not the time for competition, but for cooperation. We want to build a self-reliant smart Bangladesh together with our partners. But we don't want to be self-centered. We want to move forward through mutual cooperation with our future potential leaders. Because, Bangladesh's unique strength is its public resources, most of whom are middle-income consumers. According to Boston Consultant Group statistics, our country now has about 3 crore middle-income consumers. By 2025, this number will increase to 5 crore. As their ability to buy digital devices will increase during that time. So this market is attractive to foreign investors.
He also said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is the driving force behind Bangladesh's growth. She is a visionary, tech savvy and open minded leader. She believes that the government will create business environment without doing business itself. Our youth are now becoming entrepreneurs instead of looking for jobs. That is why we are mentoring them. We are setting up university incubator center at university level. At the same time, we have formed Startup Bangladesh Company under government sponsorship. For that we are attracting local and foreign investors.
Highlighting the possibility of new initiatives in Bangladesh and calling for investment, Palak said that the GDP rate of Bangladesh has been above 6 percent for the last 10 years. Only during the pandemic did it fall below 5 percent. Now an entrepreneurial culture has emerged in the country. A very business friendly environment prevails. The political situation is also more stable. All these are attracting foreign entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh. Already several multinational companies are doing joint venture business with local entrepreneurs.
Stating that there are billions of dollars of investment opportunities in power, railway, health, education and land sectors, the state minister also said that the government has to spend a lot in these sectors and introduce new solutions. Bangladesh market is very attractive to ICT entrepreneurs.
The “Digital Government Authority” panel was moderated by Isak Applebaum, founder of Dubai-based consulting firm Emkan Corporation Services, and former Indonesian Minister of Communications and Information Technology HE Rudiantara S. Stat.
