Bangladesh seeks investment for telecom sector in ITU summit

Most of the third world countries including Bangladesh sought funding and investment opportunities from donor agencies and telecom giants for development of telecom infrastructure, especially for fiber optics connectivity.
The authorities of those countries raised the issue at the "Connect Asia-Pacific Summit -2013", held last week in Bangkok, Thailand.
At present, Bangladesh has fiber optics connectivity in limited areas, mainly in big cities. However, most of the upazilas remained out of such coverage keeping the broadband internet connectivity at bay.
Fiber@Home and Summit Communication Ltd are sole agencies for development of fiber optics network across the country.
Bangladesh specially sought investments and funds for expansion of national broadband network (NBN) to establish the infrastructure through Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Besides, secretary general of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Dr Hamadoun I. Touré suggested the developing countries in the programme to form a broadband commission in order to expedite the development of network infrastructure.
Posts and Telecommunication Ministry of Bangladesh placed a paper in this regard at "Connect Asia-Pacific Summit -2013" seminar.
Md Giashuddin Ahmed, Vice Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), said  he has presented the paper on behalf of telecom ministry in the summit.
Sources said the BTRC officials already sat with two different business entities on the sideline of the programme, who showed their investment interests in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has tried to show that if the NBN project is run successfully then it will not help only 64 districts in the country but also help greatly in facilitating international connectivity for neighboring landlocked countries like Nepal, Bhutan and parts of India (7sister states) and Myanmar.
MoPT secretary Md Abubakar Siddique including other high officials were present in the meeting.
Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Tongue also sought investment for their countries in the ITU summit.