Digital World 2014, the country’s biggest 4-day long Information and Communication Technology (ICT) exposition that will attempt to attract local and foreign investments and exchange experiences on information technologies with foreigners, has kicked off in the city yesterday to showcase Bangladesh’s achievements and spread positive messages both at home and abroad.
The exposition has been arranged jointly by the government and the public sector for the first time and is scheduled to end on June 7. The event is expected to create a platform for free-flow of ICT related ideas, where global ICT think tanks share their thoughts.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the event yesterday morning at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.
In her speech, the premier said the government had taken steps to connect the country with a second submarine cable for uninterrupted and reliable internet connectivity in the country.
She said her government envisaged boosting annual export income to $5bn from software and IT service sectors. To achieve the target, she said, the private and public sector should work together.
Every school will have multimedia classrooms and computer labs and IT parks will be set up in every divisional headquarters to boost up the new generation with IT knowledge, she said.
Under the Information and Communication Division, Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) arranged the last two showcases in 2011 and 2012, but for the first time they tagged on with Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) to arrange the showcase this year.
Organisers concerned alleged that though the programme budget was huge, its arrangements were very poor.
State Minister for Science and Technology Yafes Osman also expressed his discontent over the arrangements. He, however, refused to comment on it.
“As I am the part of the government, I cannot comment on it. I am not satisfied with the arrangements,” Yafes told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Yafes initiated the Digital World in 2011 when he was in charge of the ICT Ministry.
Organisers informed that around 35 foreign delegates came from 15 countries to delivered speeches on different seminars and technical sessions.
On the first day, four sessions were organised including Potential of E-Learning to Reach Unreached, Cyber Security, SMAC (Social Mobile Analytics and Cloud) is the new emerging technology for Bangladesh and Promoting Tech Start-ups.
Russell T Ahmed, chief project officer of the event, said a scope for business matchmaking of the local software development firms was created in the fair. At the same time the government institutions can also show their services through the fair. “We want ‘Digital World’ to become a signature event for Bangladesh,” he said.
