To ensure the universal acceptance of Bengali language in the cyber world, Bangladesh has sought the opportunity to use Bengali language and script in e-mail as well. At the same time, in the Internet world, the applications, devices and systems are local language bound and the sector concerned have also highlighted that.
On the occasion of Universal Acceptance Day 2023, the speakers made such demands on the first day of the two-day conference held at the BTRC conference center in Ramna in the capital on Monday.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum (BIGF) jointly organized this stakeholder meeting for the first time in the country in collaboration with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar formally inaugurated the conference at noon. In the speech of the chief guest, he said that the Prime Minister will not stop him from going to the moon to solve the problem of Bengali language. So BCC is eager to attend the next consortium meeting.
The minister said, as a language-based country, there is no scope for division over language. We will work together on this.
BTRC Chairman Shyam Sundar Sikder presided over the conference while Brigadier General Ehsanul Kabir expressed hope in the welcome speech that in the future when launching any device, the welcome will be in Bengali language. He said that BTRC is working closely with ICANN.
While speaking as an honored guest, the BIGF Chairman and President of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Hasanul Haque Inu said, if not for digital Bangladesh, the world would have been left behind. Smart Bangladesh must be implemented to adapt the state, society and individual to the fourth industrial revolution of Bangladesh through internet connectivity. Smart people will make this industrial revolution a success. In this regard, he brought up the issue of distance at the ministry level to remove the language barrier by proposing to increase the use of internet in the mother tongue.
At the same time, Hasanul Haque Inu demanded the formation of a Bengali language content bank, urging to remove the color crisis of dotbangla.
The Posts and Telecommunications Abu Hena Morshed Zaman, Executive Director of Bangladesh Computer Council Ranjit Kumar were also present in the event. Ranjit Kumar said that BCC could not join the Unicode Consortium this time due to the austerity policy of the government.
And besides the meeting of stakeholders, the secretary urged the farmers to connect with this initiative.
While speaking as the president, the BTRC Chairman said to increase the publicity campaign to increase the use of Bengali language in technology.
Teresa Swinhart, SVP of ICANN Global Domain and Strategy, gave a video message on the occasion. Then BIGF general secretary Mohammad Abdul Haque Anu presented the keynote address.
Earlier, BNNRC CEO AHM Bazlur Rahman presented the keynote in the morning networking session. ICAN IDN Program Senior Manager Pitinan Kormorpanta gave an awareness presentation moderated by Professor Safayet Hossain, Head of Computer Science and Engineering Faculty of City University. Member of Parliament Afroza Haque Bina, Director General of BTRC Nasim Parvez, Project Director for Enrichment of Bengali Language in Technology Mahbub Karim and others were present at the event.
