Foreign experts laud progress in digitisation

International IT experts have observed that Bangladesh's advancement towards digitisation at even lower tiers of administration is fantastic as it enabled millions of rural people to get quick and hassle-free public services.
It was not easy to change the 200-year-old services, but Bangladesh did it efficiently to transform into digitised system, they said.
The experts made the remark while visiting the district e-service center at Jessore district administration office and Kodlapara Union Information Service Center (UISC) of its Monirampur on Sunday.
The experts are former professor of George Washington University and e-learning writer Prof Badrul Huda Khan, former director of Delhi Central Library and member of National Knowledge Commission of India Kalpana Das Gupta and manufacturer of the world's cheapest tablet "Akash" Sumeet Singh Tuli.
The government selected Jessore as first digital district last year under its Access to Information (A2I) progra-mme supported by UNDP.
During the visit, National Project Director of A2I and ICT Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan and Deputy Commissioner of Jessore Mustafizur Rahman briefed the foreign experts.
Praising the e-readiness at even primary schools, Prof Badrul Khan told journalists that he will include Jessore as a case study in his next book on e-learning.
Kalpana Das said if she would not be there, it was impossible to imagine that e-governance and e-learning have been practised in a district like Jessore.
Sumeet Singh Tuli said e-readiness and sensitisation on use of IT have almost created in Bangladesh. He said his company, Datawind, will provide all-out help to build a digital device manufacturing unit in Bangladesh and sell a tablet computer at a cost of around Tk 3,000 if any local company shows its interest to the initiative.