Joy swipes at WB for its loan conditions

Taking a swipe at the World Bank for tagging conditions with its credit, Prime Minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy on Tuesday said Bangladesh should have the free choice of spending the lender’s money as it has to repay the loan. “The World Bank has the habit of tagging conditions when it provides loan. We don’t take (interest) free loan from them as we repay it. So, how we would like to utilise the money should be the priority. We’ll use it the way we want to do so,” he said. Joy, also the ICT adviser to the Prime Minister, came up with the remarks while speaking about the WB’s finance to the High-Tech Park at Kaliakoir, Gazipur at a discussion at Bangladesh Computer Council Bhaban. He said Bangladesh is not a country of beggars; it is rather a country which has made a marked progress. “When we had talked about building a digital Bangladesh, no one could imagine there would be so much of development in the ICT sector in only five years. People are now enjoying various facilities, including e-information service, call centres and mobile banking.” Mentioning that the government is attaching priority to developing the ICT industry, Joy said they have planned to provide training to 20,000 people on IT. “The government’s main aim is to assist people, not to do business. Many IT-based industries have been developed in the country. Our next IT-based industry will be mobile apps,” he added. Joy hoped that the country will be able to export very ICT- skilled manpower if things go well as planned. Information and Communication Technology Minister Abdul Latif Siddique and State Minister for ICT Junaid Ahmed Palak, among others, spoke at the function, according to a news agency.