Bangladesh IT Business Summit was held at the Westin Hotel in Gulshan of the capital. Joining the conference, Minister of State for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak highlighted the opportunities for Japanese private and public institutions to invest and exchange technology in Bangladesh. Referring to various data and experiences, he said that after the agreement between the two countries on ICT and cyber security, some Japanese private entrepreneurs have come to Bangladesh every month. Recently they have started investing in electronics, digital device assembling, software development and cyber security and startups with partnership agreements.
While speaking as the chief guest, Palak said that about two and a half thousand startups of the country have collected 1 billion US dollars in funds from Japan, Singapore, India and the United States. Among these, Japan’s Soft Bank fintech company has invested heavily in bKash. In a few days Japanese company Marubini is going to invest in 5 startups of Bangladesh in healthtech, edtech and frontier technology.
At the conference, the Japanese robotics company EMI Lab showed the AI technology run automatic harvesting or fruit collection machine used experimentally in the agricultural work of Bangladesh. These presentations were presented by software engineers Omar Farooq and Mohammad Rifat Ansari Zaif in the presence of Katusute Aray, the technical advisor of the company.
Referring to this presentation, Zunaid Ahmed Palak said that Bangladesh is now entering a knowledge-based society. The boys of Bangladesh have also shown their ability by solving Japan’s problems. At the time of independence, Japanese children saved their tiffin money and sent it to Bangladeshi children who had taken refuge in India. In this way, an emotional relationship has developed between Bangladesh and Japan. Now it’s time for Banglatech. We have to reach the top now. The logo of the conference also reflects that. Therefore, I call upon the Japanese government and private entrepreneurs to increase investment in Bangladesh’s postal, telecommunication and information technology sectors. If any of them want to open a training center and incubation center in Bangladesh then they will be given free space or prepared space.
Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Yoma Kiminori and Resident Representative of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Bangladesh UG Anand were special guests on the occasion.
Also, Startup Bangladesh Managing Director Sami Ahmed invited the Japanese entrepreneurs present at the conference to attend the Startup Bangladesh Conference to be held in Dhaka on July 27-28.