‘BD to be introduced as a smart nation by 2041’

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said on Friday the government has set its goal to introduce Bangladesh as a smart nation through implementing Smart Bangladesh by 2041, reports UNB.

Connecting virtually to the inaugural function organised jointly by World Bank financed Enhancing Digital Government and Economy (EDGE) Project of BCC under ICT Division and Institute of Business Administration of Dhaka University, he said after successful implementation of Digital Bangladesh the government has announced the programme of Smart Bangladesh.

"Government is giving importance to take programmes in line with smart citizen, smart economy, smart government and smart society- the four pillars of Smart Bangladesh to introduce Bangladesh as intelligent and innovative nation by 2041," Palak said.

He said the government has already set up Smart Leadership Academy (SLA) to build smart citizens and is currently in the process of setting up Center for Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Palak said the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and the middle managers of IT companies played a pivotal role in increasing business growth of their companies. The specialised training of middle managers under Advanced Certificate for Management Professionals (ACMP 4.0) will help to increase their efficiency to expand business and investment, he added.

Chaired by DU Prof Mohammad A Momen, Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor ASM Maksud Kamal, Executive Director of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) Ranajit Kumar, IBA's Professor Shakila Yasmin, Operation Manager of World Bank Bangladesh Gayle Martin and EDGE Project Director Nahid Sultana Mallik, among others, spoke at the event.

306 middle managers of IT companies are taking part in the training under ACMP 4.0 course. Earlier, a total of 855 mid-level managers including CEOs were provided training in the same course.

Two of them Ruman Ishtiaq and Samina Mustareen shared their experience of the training under ACMP 4.0 course.