Digital Bangladesh no longer a dream now: Minister

Senior Correspondent: Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said digital Bangladesh is no longer a dream but a reality. Bangladesh will turn into a digital middle-income country by 2021.

The minister said this while addressing a roundtable at Geneva in Switzerland on Tuesday night.

Md Abdul Latif Bakshi, Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Commerce, confirmed the news in a press release on Wednesday.

“Works are going on in a quicker pace to make Bangladesh as a digital middle-income country by 2021 as per the declaration of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's "Vision-2021",” Tofail said in the press release.

Mentioning that the present government has taken effective steps in a bid to build a digital middle-income country, Tofail informed that about 13.02 crore out of 16 crore people of the country are using mobile phone while about 6.07 crore receiving internet services.

The minister said rural people of the country are taking digital services through 5,000 digital centres. The popularity of e-commerce is now on the rise in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, more than 500 companies are operating their business through online.

The commerce minister underscored the need for developing skilled manpower, financial and technical support to expand digital activities in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

“The government is inviting 80 percent tenders for development works through online. There are efforts to make the works paperless in office,” Tofail said.

risingbd/DHAKA/July 12, 2017/Noimuddin/Amirul