The Digital Bangladesh IT Invest Summit in the United States was held on May 9 in New York, USA, organized by the Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority, with the participation of expatriates, American businessmen and entrepreneurs. At the conference, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak hinted at creating its own ‘Metaverse’ platform for Bangladesh to make foreign investment more attractive.
Minister for Liberation War Affairs AQM Mozammel Haque was the chief guest at the conference.
Aparajita Haq Nahid Khan, Member of Parliamentary Committee on Telecom and ICT; Shahidul Islam, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the United States; Monirul Islam, Consul General in New York and Chief Co-ordinator for SDG Implementation Juena Aziz and BIDA chairman Sirajul Islam were present in the summit while the Managing director of Bangladesh Hi-tech Park Authority Bikarna Kumar Ghosh presided over the meet.
State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak delivered a presentation on the immense potential and investment opportunities of the technology sector in Bangladesh at the summit.
In the presentation, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak discussed the 4 main foundations of Digital Bangladesh for the implementation of Smart Bangladesh Vision by 2041.
On the basis of these four, under the direction of the Prime Minister’s ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, he also pointed out how Bangladesh has achieved the highest GDP as compared to other neighboring countries. He said that Bangladesh has advanced 25 steps in the recent ITU Global Index of Cyber Security.
Metaverse is a combination of the words meta and universe. Which means – the world outside the world. Where almost everything can be enjoyed as real as opposed to physical presence. The first introduction to Neil Stephenson’s 1992 novel, Snow Crush, was to the world of science fiction called Metavers.
Palak said, our esteemed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina believes in the power of youth. At the age of 33, I am fulfilling his responsibility as the Minister of State for ICT. As a result of various initiatives, the growth rate of the country’s ICT sector has been increasing by an average of 10 percent since 2010. More than two and a half thousand startups have been formed. 70 percent of them are doing business based on digital services. This sector has created more than 1.5 lakh jobs. Bangladesh is now second in the world in terms of digital workers.
Speaking on the occasion, a2i Policy Adviser Anir Chowdhury requested to take initiative to create a virtual business present platform for business in Bangladesh. The State Minister for ICT of Bangladesh hopes that this will soon create business opportunities in Metaverse technology in Bangladesh. He said, “I hope Metaverse Present will be confirmed in Bangladesh soon.” I have already talked to brother Anir and Mr. Aziz about this. We hope that investors will get the opportunity to do business on Bangladeshi soil from abroad without going to Bangladesh through this metavers.
Business leaders from Bangladesh also took part in the conference. During the conference, Mr. Bobby, an expatriate Bangladeshi, announced a 15 million dollars investment in Bangladesh’s Hi-Tech Park.
