Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday categorically said that Bangladesh would march forward adopting all modern technologies as they came along in the future.
‘The modern technologies that will emerge in the coming future, Bangladesh will step forward keeping up the tempo with those technologies,’ she said.
The prime minister said this while addressing a programme centring World Telecommunication and Information Society Day-2015 and observing the 150th anniversary of the International Telecommunication Union.
Post and Telecommunications Division and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission jointly organised the programme at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.
The prime minister said the government that started its journey in 2009 with the dream of establishing ‘Digital Bangladesh’ had transformed it into a reality as people could now receive various public services digitally at their doorsteps.
She said her government had been developing the infrastructure of the ICT sector of the country to bring the fruits of the sector to the common people.
Hasina said that the government had reduced internet cost to its lowest Tk 612 from Tk 27,000 per MBPS, as there is no alternative to making it easily available to ensure free flow of information.
As a result, she said, over 4.56 crore people are now using the internet in Bangladesh while over 12.47 crore mobile SIMs are being used across the country increasing the internet penetration to 27.42 per cent from 2.5 per cent in last six years.
The prime minister said people were now able to pay utility bills, get results of various public examinations and complete the process of admission in educational institutions through internet and mobile phones in their hands.
She also said 3G network had already been introduced in the country to increase the internet speed and the government was working to launch the 4G network next.
She said that steps had been taken to connect Bangladesh with the second submarine cable to increase the capacity of the internet to 1300 GBPS while capacity of existing submarine cable had been increased up to 200 GBPS to meet its growing demand.
‘Hope that the work of the second submarine cable will be completed within December 2016,’ she said.
Talking about the country’s own satellite, the prime minister said the government is going to launch Bangabandhu Satellite into orbit in 2017, and are currently moving ahead to this end to make the initiative a success.
The prime minister also mentioned various international recognitions for successful use of ICT in the country, including the World Summit on Information Society Award in 2014 in recognition of successfully bringing government services to the doorsteps of the people, she said. Earlier, the prime minister distributed prizes among winners of an online essay competition on ‘Telecommunication and ICTs: Drivers of Innovation’.
She also released a commemorative postage stamp and a first day cover marking the WTISD-2015 and 150th anniversary of the creation of ITU.
Source: New Age
