State Minister ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak has said Bangladesh currently earns $1.9 billion from freelancing and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wants to take the figure to $5 billion within the next five years.
He visited the Rajshahi City Corporation Employment Skill Development Institute and the lab set up on the 10th floor and exchanged greetings with the councillors and officers of the city corporation on Sunday.
He said the institute, being run by the Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC), will play a vital role towards generating smart employment.
The meeting was chaired by RCC Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton and attended by Chief Executive Officer Dr ABM Sharif Uddin, panel mayors Nizam Ul Azim, Abdul Momin and Tahera Khatun, and institute Coordinator Prof Habibur Rahman.
Palak praised the idea behind establishing such an institute, stating that the unique concept will be replicated across the country as it will play a pioneering role in smart employment.
He said: “Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton has made Rajshahi the best and model city in the whole country. The whole of Bangladesh is following him. He made a demand for a Hi-Tech Park in Rajshahi, which the prime minister has met.”
Mayor Liton said freelancing will be a major source of foreign currencies in Bangladesh in the future.
“In the future, computer training centres will be established at various important places in the city. The youth can earn money by freelancing after training,” he added.
Notably, the institute is conducting four courses: digital marketing, graphics design, web design and development, and video editing for freelancing.
RCC Employment Skill Development Institute officially started its journey on January 1 with the aim of creating employment. Two hundred forty students are getting training in four courses in the first batch of the four-month long training.
