Government plans to set up 12 Information Technology (IT) parks in the country for building a digital Bangladesh with the support from the proposed Indian second line of credit.
Information Communication Technology (ICT) Division of the Ministry of Post, Telecommunication & ICT will implement the proposed project.
ICT division has already sent the project proposal to the planning ministry for getting approval from the next ECNEC meeting.
A total of 12 IT parks will be established in 12 separate districts-Jamalpur, Natore, Thakurgaon, Comilla, Maymensing, Kareniganj (Dhaka), Barisal, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Khulna and Chittagong.
“As ICT has been considered as a thrust sector, the government has taken various initiatives to achieve the digital Bangladesh target including setting up of IT parks across the country,” said an official of the ICT division.
According to an estimate of ICT division, it will cost US$201m for setting up the 12 proposed parks while all the technical assistance will be provided by neighbouring India.
ICT division hopes that the loan will be sanctioned during the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June-6-7.
“Setting up of Information and Technology (IT) Park in 12 districts will be one of the priority project which would be a milestone for the development of ICT sector as well as industrialisation in Bangladesh,” Sham Sundor Sikder, secretary of ICT division, told the Dhaka Tribune.
The construction works for the 12 IT parks will begin in the next fiscal year and will be completed by 2018.
“If India finally did not sanction the proposed loan, the government will go for other alternatives to implement the project. In that case,the project will be implemented from the government’s own funds,’’ said a top official.
ICT division has reportedly communicated with China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan for technical assistance for implementing the project in case India turned down Bangladesh’s priority project.
Strongly criticising the decision to establish IT parks outside the capital, Fahim Mashrur, former president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), viewed that the IT park should be established in Dhaka city to boost the software industry as 90% software companies are located in this territory.