Mercy Tembon, outgoing country director of the World Bank appointed in Bangladesh, expressed hope that the way Bangladesh is moving forward with information technology, innovation and youth talent, soon the country will become a role model in the world. He expressed such a positive expression while attending a farewell meeting at the ICT State Minister’s office at the ICT Tower in Agargaon of the capital on Tuesday.
Expecting that the cooperation of the World Bank will be expanded in all fields including the ICT sector of Bangladesh, the ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak has drawn the attention of the outgoing World Bank for the quick settlement of various issues related to the project and the simplification of the approval process of the World Bank.
Marcy Tembon praised the collaboration with the World Bank in various areas including speedy resolution of strategic issues during her tenure. The State Minister expressed hope that the relationship with the World Bank will continue in the future and the partnership with Bangladesh in other sectors including the ICT sector will increase.
In the discussion, the ICT State Minister Palak said that currently two separate projects named ‘Digital Entrepreneurship and Innovation Eco-System Development’ and ‘Enhancing Digital Government and Economy’ are ongoing in the ICT Division with World Bank loan support. Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority is creating digital entrepreneurs to increase the pace of private investment by building an innovation ecosystem in the country. As a result, the young generation will be more interested in job creation rather than job seeking. Whereas 13 years ago the less educated youth of the country was dependent on other labor intensive industries including garments for employment. And now they are building their career in IT industry. Besides, increasing the entry rate of startups and small and medium enterprises in the industry and creating gender inclusive digital entrepreneurship is one of the goals of this project.
On the other hand, the main objective of the ‘Enhancing Digital Government and Economy’ project is to create a supportive environment for the development of the digital economy in Bangladesh and to expand the domestic information and communication technology industry. Through this project, the creation of skilled manpower and job opportunities will be created through the formulation of strategies and action plans to deal with the fourth industrial revolution. The State Minister requested the Country Director for speedy settlement of various issues related to the project and to facilitate the approval process of the World Bank. If necessary, he advised to hold regular coordination meetings for this purpose.
During the conversation, the country director of the World Bank assigned to Bangladesh, Marcy Tembon, said that Bangladesh’s economy is now very strong, so there is no opportunity to see Bangladesh in isolation in the global economy. Bangladesh government has already made unprecedented progress in various sectors including education-health-communication-ICT. As a result, Bangladesh is now at the stage of take-off. Resources are not important for the development of any country but skilled manpower, strong institutions, innovative ideas and acceleration are very necessary. In the near future, Bangladesh will not take anyone as a model, but other countries will consider Bangladesh as a model.
In the discussion meeting, the director of ‘Enhancing Digital Government and Economy’ project Dr. Muhammad Mehdi Hasan; Abul Fatah Md. Baligur Rahman, Director of the ‘Digital Entrepreneurship and Innovation Eco-System Development’ project; Start Up Bangladesh Ltd. Managing Director Sami Ahmed; Innovation and Commercialization Specialist Md. Abdul Bari and others were present.
At the end of the courtesy meeting, the ICT State Minister presented the souvenir of the party symbol boat to the outgoing guest.
