DHAKA, Nov 22, 2022 (BSS) - Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said about 10 crore people living in 60 percent of geographical areas across the country came under the high-speed internet facility since the government is committed to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by leveraging information technology.

"Bangladesh government is committed to utilize the facilities of the 'Digital Bangladesh' and leverage the IT to achieve the sustainable development goals, create employment for all and transform the country into a developed one," he said.

The foreign minister made the remarks while speaking at a function at a city hotel here on the occasion of the end of National ICT Infra-Network for Bangladesh Government Phase-III (Info-Sarker Phase-3) Project of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under the ICT Division, said a press release.

Momen said that the Info-Sarker Phase-3 project has played a vital role in connecting the citizens with a successful implementation of Connecting Citizens target, one of the four pillars of 'Digital Bangladesh'.
 
Under the project, the foreign minister said, entrepreneurs at the Union Digital Centers (UDCs) have been being provided 5 Mbps bandwidth service at free of cost for the last four years, which helped to provide around 80 crore government services to the people at rural areas.

Some 1,09,244 government institutions, including educational institutions, health complexes, land offices, and other government offices, at the village level across the country are being brought under the broadband connectivity under the project, he said, adding that employment opportunities have been created for a large number of young people through freelancing at the project areas.

State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak presided over the function while Ambassador of China to Bangladesh Li Jiming, Senior Secretary of the ICT Division NM Zeaul Alam, CEO (Secretary) of Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) of the Prime Minister's Office Dr Md Mushfiqur Rahman and the Executive Director of BCC Ranajit Kumar were present as the special guests.

Project Director of Info-Sarker Phase 3 Project Bikarna Kumar Ghosh delivered the welcome speech at the event while Executive Director of BCC Ranajit Kumar gave the vote of thanks. Managing Director of CRIG Guo Wei and CEO of Huawei Technologies Bangladesh Limited Pan Junfeng also spoke at the function, among others.

Speaking on the occasion, Palak highlighted the progress of Bangladesh in the information technology sector and projected an overall picture on the development of 'Digital Bangladesh'.

Noting that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had declared to transform the every village into town in her party's election manifesto during the last election, he said, "If we could provide electricity, internet, modern road connectivity, education and health to our villagers, they will not shift or relocate to towns".

Palak added: "I think if we get the approval from both governments to modernise our urban and rural lifestyle through ICT project, we can really provide all the necessary modern services to our citizens".

He requested the Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh for giving special consideration to approve the project.

Info-Sarker Phase-3 Project jointly funded by governments of Bangladesh and China was launched in 2017 aimed at providing high-speed internet service to rural towns of the country.

Apart from supporting to create employment in the country, the project also aimed at increasing the network capacity of the Union Digital Center (UDC) for establishing network connectivity in different offices, schools, colleges, growth centers and other government offices at the Union level.

Under the project, 2600 unions across the country have been provided high speed broadband internet connection and 1000 police offices have also been connected through VPN.

The project won the e-Asia 2017 Award under the Creative Inclusive Digital Opportunities category, the ASOCIO Award under the Digital Government Award category in 2018 and the WSIS Award as Champion under the Information and Communications Infrastructure category in 2019.