Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said digital connectivity is the key to progress. The government is working tirelessly to bring high speed digital connectivity to the doorsteps of every rural community in the country. Meanwhile, we have covered 98 percent of the country’s 4G mobile network. In 2021, Bangladesh entered the 5-G era. Bangladesh is working to launch 5G technology commercially.
The minister said these words at an international panel discussion titled ‘Connect the Unconnected: Making Remote Connections, Policy, Technological Innovation and Multiparty Cooperation’ organized by Huawei on the digital platform from his office at the Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka today.
Telecom ministers, digital technology researchers and digital technology sector participants from various countries including Belgium, South Africa, Indonesia and Cambodia participated in the panel discussion.
The Minister of Telecommunication highlighted the various initiatives taken by the government to develop the digital connectivity and digital technology of the country and said that a revolutionary change has been initiated in the digital connectivity and technology development of Bangladesh under the Digital Bangladesh program. The Digital Bangladesh Program announced by Sheikh Hasina in 2008 has been successfully implemented in 2021. The minister mentioned that the government is working to realize the goal of building a smart Bangladesh by the middle of 2041.
He said, under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the journey of mobile phone development in Bangladesh began in 1997. Following this, Bangladesh has entered the era of 3G in 2013, 4G in 2018 and 5G in 2021.
This pioneer of digital technology development pointed out the population density of Bangladesh and the difficult task of reaching high-speed digital connection in Haor, remote Islands and mountainous areas and said, “We are successfully facing the challenge of bringing high-speed internet connection to the doorsteps of every people in the country.” Mr. Mustafa Jabbar, the promoter of Bengali language on computer, highlighted the initiative taken by the government to establish energy-efficient green telecom devices and said that our goal is to establish uninterrupted telecom services that are friendly to the environment. He highlighted the success of the Digital Bangladesh program to keep the life of the people of the country going during the Covid-19 pandemic. The minister referred to 5G technology as a tool of the fifth industrial revolution. He expressed optimism. The entire world will play a positive role in collective efforts to address the challenges facing the telecom industry.
In the event, telecom experts emphasized the need to build smart factories to deal with the adverse effects of climate change, including global warming, and said that digital technology should be used to protect the environment and ecology. They expressed optimism that digital technology would make a fruitful contribution to reducing carbon emissions.
