Govt targets mobile apps development
The government aims to develop 2,000 mobile applications at the national level in a bid to connect the country's youth to the international mobile market.
“We will provide all sorts of support to the IT professionals for developing them,” Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for posts, telecommunication and ICT, said at the inauguration of the BCS City IT Fair at IDB Bhaban in Dhaka yesterday.
In October last year, the information and communication technology division undertook the mobile apps development project involving Tk 8 crore, to be implemented within 15 months.
The project will provide technical training for mobile apps developers at the university and grassroots level.
The state minister said the government also plans to set up e-centres in 8,500 post offices across the country to take ICT services to the rural population.
The coverage of 3G network will reach all over the country within a year, said Palak, adding that the government also plans to install a second submarine cable through a consortium that will increase internet bandwidth seven-fold.
At the event, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader urged IT professionals to step up their measures against cyber crime. “Bangladesh is gradually moving towards digitisation, so IT experts must be more vigilant against cyber crime.”
Fair organisers also urged the communication minister to bring the BCS Computer City under the proposed metro-rail routes and also set up an overhead foot-bridge in front of the main road of the market, to which Quader responded in the affirmative.
Bangladesh has made significant progress in digitisation over the last five years, said Mustafa Jabbar, president of Bangladesh Computer Samity.
“Once it was a dream to make payment through mobile phones in the country, but now it is a reality,” he said, adding that the country's mobile transactions a month now stand upwards of Tk 6,600 crore.
Mojibur Rahman Swapan, president of BCS Computer City, said the fair was organised targeting the upcoming ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Bangladesh. The slogan “Game of World Cup - Fair of Technology” has been adopted for the fair to lure in tech buyers.
All sorts of ICT products such as computer, laptop, modems, multimedia projector and internet security software would be displayed at the ten-day fair that will remain open from 10am to 8pm everyday and have an entry fee of Tk 10. A total of 160 companies are participating in the fair on a permanent two-lakh square feet area of IDB Bhaban at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, which is the largest single computer market in the county.
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