Bangladesh will march forward with tech advancement: Hasina

Bangladesh will step forward keeping up the tempo with the modern technologies that will emerge in the days to come, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said yesterday.

She spoke at a programme organised to mark the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2015 and to observe the 150th anniversary of the International Telecommunication Union.

Post and Telecommunications Division and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission jointly organised the event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.

The government is working to realise the dream of establishing Digital Bangladesh, as people now can avail various public services digitally on their doorsteps, Hasina said.

The government has been developing ICT infrastructure in the country to provide the common people with better services, she said.

The government has also reduced internet cost to its lowest at Tk 612 from Tk 27,000 per mbps, as there is no alternative to making it easily available to ensure free flow of information, she said. 

Now over 4.56 crore people are using internet in Bangladesh while over 12.47 crore mobile connections are being used across the country, increasing internet penetration to 27.42 percent from 2.5 percent in the last six years, the prime minister said. 

People can now pay utility bills, get results of various public examinations and complete admission processes of various educational institutions through the internet and mobile phones in their hands, she said.

Also, 3G network has already been introduced in the country to increase internet speed; and the government is working to launch 4G network soon, the premier said.

Tele-density has increased by 2.5 times to 80 percent, while 99 percent area of the country has been brought under mobile network coverage, she said.

She said steps have also been taken to connect Bangladesh with the second submarine cable to increase internet capacity to 1,300gbps while capacity of existing submarine cable has been increased to 200gbps to meet growing local demand.

"I hope that the work of the second submarine cable will be completed within December 2016."

Hasina said the government has introduced a national web portal with 25,000 websites of various public organisations.

She narrated that e-commerce, e-transaction, e-banking and other activities on trade and commerce as well as e-signature and communication through video conferencing have been started in various organisations, enabling work to be completed faster and more effectively.

Talking about the country's own satellite, the prime minister said the government is working on launching the Bangabandhu Satellite into the orbit in 2017. 

Earlier, she distributed prizes among the winners of an online essay competition on telecommunication and ICT.

She also released a commemorative postage stamp on the occasion.