State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak sought India’s cooperation in building a smart Bangladesh. He emphasized sector-wise inter-communication infrastructure design and technology and data-based decision-making to achieve the goal of Smart Bangladesh in the future. Besides, the State Minister also emphasized on creating a platform for communication between various organizations of Bangladesh and India to cooperate each other.
He said, from a cooperative point of view, all such steps should be taken, so that the two countries can work together.
This information was conveyed in the press release sent by the ICT Division on Wednesday. It has been said that today in the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) Auditorium, India participated virtually as the chief guest in the opening ceremony of the workshop titled ‘Smart Bangladesh: A Vision for Efficient, Transparent and Accountable Digital Service Delivery’ organized under the initiative of World Bank’s Enhancing Digital Government and Economy (EDGE) project. Mentioning ‘Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti Masterplan’ as an excellent initiative, the State Minister said, we need to understand this masterplan and find cooperative methods and ways in this regard.
State Minister Palak made four proposals to promote cooperative relations and take initiatives. Firstly, an MoU could be signed between Bangladesh and India to create an opportunity to learn about the policy framework of ‘Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti’. In this case, the ICT department can be the coordinating ministry. DPIIT may also be requested who will be the coordinator. Secondly, our Smart Leadership Academy (SLA) can be roped in to provide training to the next generation of Bangladeshi ministers, government officials and professionals on the ‘Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti Masterplan’. Discussions and exchange activities between the two countries can be started on this. Online workshops can be organized, in which selected experts and guests from the two countries will participate. Thirdly, we have projects between our two countries and Bangladesh may be the first international outreach of Prime Minister Gati Shakti of India for cooperation in this. Fourth, a team consisting of the Secretary of the ICT Department, the Executive Director of BCC and the EDGE Project Director will identify areas of cooperation and work on how to start work quickly.
The workshop was chaired by Ranjit Kumar, Executive Director of BCC, special secretary of India’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce Sumita Deora, Information and Communication Technology Secretary Md. Samsul Arefin, Director General of Digital Security Agency Abu Saeed Md. Kamruzzaman, EDGE project consultant Enamul Kabir and architect Hasan Uzzaman also spoke.