ICT capacity building can reduce climate risks: Inu

Information Minster Hasanul Huq Inu has said that increased international cooperation in building information communication technology (ICT) capacity is necessary to cope with the risks of climate change. He said this while reading out the keynote paper on ‘Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change’ on the third day of the 9th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) conference in Istanbul. The minister informed the assembly that Bangladesh was far advanced in disaster preparedness and coping with its aftermath as it had been identified as among the top climate vulnerable countries. He further said that Bangladesh was committed to building up an ICT system capable of risk reduction, disaster preparedness and post-disaster rescue operations. High level delegations from more than 100 countries and international organisations including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), European Union and Bangladesh were present during the session. Earlier, the information minister speaking at the inaugural session told the gathering that Internet belonged to the people. Therefore there was no option but to democratise its governance through involvement of stakeholders in the best interests of inter-continental communication, according to a news agency.