Bangladesh government will seek financial assistance from Japan to establish at least 10 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) parks in different districts of the country.
The government is going to approach the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in this regard during his visit in Bangladesh next week.
ICT division under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has recently prepared the list of districts upon consultation with the planning ministry.
The selected districts are Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Manikganj, Sylhet, Comilla, Barisal, Khulna, Rangpur, Gopalganj and Mymensingh.
Sources in the division said every ICT park might cost around Tk300 crore totaling to an amount of Tk3,000 crore to develop the whole project.
“After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Japan the planning ministry asked us to submit a plan within a day only,” a senior official of Hi-Tech Park, Gazipur, the first state-level Hi-Tech zone established by the government, told the Dhaka Tribune last week.
As per the government decision, the park would have provisions for attracting foreign companies to set up operations in the country, as well as developing indigenous technological capability for the development of the local industries.
The park would also try to create conducive atmosphere for establishing ICT, engineering, electronics, telecommunication, biotechnology and other related knowledge-based industries.
The 10 districts were finalised on August 19 during a meeting held among Planning Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal and Telecommunication and Information-Communication Technology Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui.
Earlier Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina decided to set up at least one ICT village in every district of the country.
She made the announcement in a meeting with the Telecommunication and Information-Communication Technology in July.
Hi-Tech Park officials said they would need at least three years to complete the project.
“We have acquired lands in Chittagong and Sylhet while we need to acquire lands in rest of the districts. For the ICT parks our priority is university based towns,” a Hi-Tech park official said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to visit Bangladesh on a two-day official tour on September 6.
In May this year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Japan and sought assistance in some development projects to be taken in Bangladesh.
During her visit, Japan pledged to provide an assistance of 600 billion yen ($6bn) to Bangladesh over the next five years.
