The ICT Division yesterday announced completion of a project under which 18,130 government offices are connected through a nationwide network.

Under the project known as Info-Sarkar, 800 video-conferencing systems, 254 e-agriculture service centres, telemedicine services in 25 health centres, disaster data recovery centres and specialised training labs at universities across the country were set up in the last two years. Besides, a Wi-Fi network was installed in the secretariat and 25,000 tablet PCs were distributed to government officials under the project, which was mainly financed by China.

State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan inaugurated the completed project at a programme in Dhaka, which was broadcast through videoconferencing in 11 upazilas of seven districts.

Physical infrastructure is limited but the cyber infrastructure is unlimited, he said. “So, we have to utilise the unlimited potential.”

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said the government plans to introduce new projects to expand the ICT services throughout the country.

“It's our plan to make the internet available, affordable and reliable for all by 2021 as per our Digital Bangladesh vision.”

Shahjahan Mahmood, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission; Kabir Bin Anwar, project director of Access to Information programme; and Saiful Islam, project director of National ICT Infra-Network for Bangladesh Government Phase-2, also spoke at the function.