The country’s information and communication technology (IT) sector has the potential to earn USD 50 billion by 2041.
The industry, government and academia have to work together as the main condition for building a Smart Bangladesh.
State Minister for Information and Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak during a keynote presentation at a ministerial conference made the disclosure.
The conference titled ‘Digital Bangladesh to Smart Bangladesh’ was organized by Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) on Sunday night.
He said, “By 2025 more than one lakh people will be employed in the ICT sector. By the year 2030, we expect to export USD 10 billion from the IT sector and by year 2041 our IT sector will be worth USD 50 billion.”
Referring to various projects undertaken by the government, he said that many foreign companies have already invested in the country. Then various companies from all over the world chose Bangladesh as a target to invest in. Our IT consumer market will surpass Vietnam’s by 2025 and become the ninth largest market in the world by 2030. That is why foreign companies are coming forward to invest.
Meanwhile is another seminar on ‘SMART Bangladesh: Role of the ICT Sector’ to make the general public familiarized with the contribution that ICT is playing to act as the dynamic driving force for digitalizing Bangladesh, and how it is improvising every citizen of this country in creating SMART Bangladesh by 2041.
Assistant Secretary of Information and Communication Technology Department Mohammad Naveed Shafiullah said, “We have already started working on Smart Bangladesh. Smart Bangladesh will be the partner of the fourth industrial revolution. Industry, government and academia have to work together as the main conditions for building Smart Bangladesh. Besides, research and development should be emphasized. Capacity building will be needed. We need to guide our young society to create a smart Bangladesh, this task will be easier if they get the right guidelines.”
Datasoft managing director Mahbub Zaman said, “Data is at the root of everything these days. The more data we have, the more powerful we are. The fourth industrial revolution is completely different from all previous industrial revolutions. The previous industrial revolutions were analog systems. The fourth industrial revolution will be knowledge-based, consisting of data-driven technologies.”
“If industry, government and academia work together, there will be no barriers to building a smart Bangladesh. After the formation of Digital Bangladesh, Smart Bangladesh will carry a new identity. This Bangladesh will be from farmers to all people,” he added.
During these seminars it was also informed that, within next one month, BASIS will submit a proposal in written format to the government and Academia which will include various information on the formation of SMART Bangladesh.