The US government is interested in working with Bangladesh on training and environment to build internet, safe IT and citizen capacity building in South Asia. For that purpose, the US Embassy in Dhaka wants to work in the next step in the latest technology partnership with Dhaka in areas like environmental pollution, infrastructure and traffic congestion.
In a meeting with the Minister of State for ICT at the ICT Tower on Thursday morning, Environment, Science, Technology and Health Officer Shivani Rasanayakam, Economic Commercial Specialist Asif Ahmed and Sheela Ahmed of the United States Embassy in Dhaka highlighted the country’s position.
Appreciating their interest, Bangladesh has offered to set up an ‘IT Connect US’ desk like Japan and Korea in a joint public-private partnership. The State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak proposed to set up this desk through the US Chamber of Commerce in the presence of the Prime Minister.
State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak said that if this desk is opened through BASIS and the US Embassy, there is an opportunity for business partnership worth hundreds of millions of dollars through this desk through Bangladeshi freelancers, software exporters, IT service providers working in the US.
In the bilateral meeting with the commercial officers of the US embassy in Bangladesh, he also said that it can be implemented within the next 10 years. Because we have already set up a Nano lab at BUET. Step by step we are making microchip to Nano chip eco system in the country. We are building the resource talent pool by developing our capabilities in artificial intelligence, robotics, microchip design and cyber security technologies. As a result, in the next 10 years we will be able to participate in solving global problems.
Expressing their capabilities, Palak said that three startup companies are currently working for Samsung, Apple and AMD in microchip designing. With this strength, I believe we will be able to grow 10 times in the next 5 years.
The state minister informed that ‘Not making profitonly; the dedication and commitment to innovation has already received positive response from Bangladesh-US IT institutes and universities by holding tri-partite meetings’.
In the meeting, the Startup Bangladesh Limited Managing Director Sami Ahmed; Executive Director of Bangladesh Computer Council Ranjit Kumar, Director General of ICT Directorate Md. Mostafa Kamal, Managing Director of Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority Mohammad Rezaul Karim, Project Director of iDEA Project Md. Altaf Hossain, Project Director and Joint Secretary of EDGE Project. Muhammad Mehdi Hasan was present.
