The Minister of State for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak had a bilateral meeting with British High Commissioner Sarah Catherine Cook and French Ambassador Marie Masdupuy at the ICT Tower in Agargaon on Sunday.
During the meeting, France expressed interest in working with Bangladesh in education, technology, commercial development, and research, and Britain in youth skills development and cyber security.
Regarding the discussion with Marie Masdupuy, he said that to strengthen the friendly relations between Bangladesh and France, issues such as education, technology, startups, skill development have been prioritized in today’s discussion.
He said, Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has set the goal of launching our own earth observatory satellite in space. So that, the country needs its own satellite to analyze all the data, weather forecast, agricultural production and other security to protect the sovereignty. These issues have been discussed. Cyber security was also discussed.
After the meeting with the British ambassador, the State Minister Palak said in a press briefing that Bangladesh-Britain will work together to increase business in the IT sector, ensure cyber security and improve skills in the future. In addition, discussions have been held with the British Council to increase the English language communication skills of the country’s young generation. This will benefit our freelancers, and software engineers.
Palak said the UK’s political relationship with Bangladesh is historic. On January 8, 1972, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman stayed in London while returning home from Pakistan. At that time, Bangabandhu had a meeting with British Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath. From that meeting, the relationship between the two countries started auspiciously. We want to keep it going.
He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced Vision-2041 to build a Smart Bangladesh and the British Government also announced their Digital Development Strategy. The four pillars of Smart Bangladesh; Smart Government, Smart Economy, Smart Citizen, and Smart Society have much in common with Britain’s Digital Development Strategy.
On the other hand, UK High Commissioner Sarah Catherine Cook praised the development of various sectors of Bangladesh in the past 15 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In the coming days, Bangladesh will advance in various sectors including information technology.
Sarah Cook expressed hope that friendly and cooperative relations between Bangladesh and Britain will deepen in the future.
Bangladesh Computer Council Executive Director Ranjit Kumar, a2i Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury, Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority Executive Director GSM Zafarullah, DSA Director General Abu Saeed Md. Kamruzzaman, Bangladesh British Council Programs Director David Knox and representatives of both countries were present.