New law to step up cyber security being drafted

The government has announced a four-year action plan including enactment of 'Cyber Security Act' and establishment of 10 additional software technology parks to develop the country's ICT sector.
The ICT roadmap also includes ensuring hundred per cent mobile phone penetration, 70 per cent internet users, expansion of 3G (third generation) mobile technology into the upazila level, setting up of national call centre, ICT master plan, bringing union parishad under fiber optical connectivity and enhancement of internet bandwidth.
State Minister for the Ministry of Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak announced the working plan at a press conference in the city Monday.
Recognising the importance of the cyber safety, the junior minister said the ministry has started drafting the act in this connection. "We've started preparing the draft and I hope it could be placed before the cabinet next year," he said.
He said in terms of mobile penetration, Bangladesh secured the 5th position in the world with 78 per cent users. Besides, presently the country has 43 million active internet users with 27.8 per cent penetration.  
The state minister said the ministry has taken steps to ensure 100 per cent mobile penetration and 70 per cent internet penetration by 2018.  "For us, a major challenge is to prepare internet contents for all has," Mr Palak said.
Regarding the 3G services, the junior minister said the government has planned to broaden the 3G network through the upazila level within this year.
The district towns already came under the 3G coverage and it could reach the upazila level by 2015.
"We're working on allocating the 4G spectrum by next year," he added.
The junior minister said the ICT division is working on establishing a national call centre to provide non-stop e-services including health related issues.
"We've already completed ground work in this regard. It will be very effective hotline for helping the general people through providing necessary information," he noted.
Terming the freelancing market 'significant' for the country, the state minister said they are preparing skilled manpower to grab the global market opportunity.
"We've already trained up around 26,000 young people and are taking measures to produce more 55,000 IT experts by next two years," he noted.
Besides, the government in cooperation with the Korean government has taken an ICT master plan to expedite the government's target of achieving the vision 2021. However, the minister didn't mention what sorts of measures and functions to be included in the joint master plan.      
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