Saudi, Sweden keen to boost support for ICT, telecoms

Saudi and Sweden envoys in Dhaka have expressed their willingness to increase cooperation in the ICT and telecommunications sector of the country.
The development came as they paid courtesy calls to state minister for post, telecoms and information technology Junaid Ahmed Palak at his office.
During the meetings, they exchanged views on various matters of mutual interest, especially the development of the postal, telecommunication and IT sectors.
Mr Palak said Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Essa Yousef Alduhailan expressed interest in increased bandwidth export from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia.
Highlighting the existing excellent relations between the two countries, he said Saudi Arabia was a true friend and one of the development partners of Bangladesh.
Further increase in the volume of BTCL's voice call exchange with Saudi Telecom, promotion of postal services and an increase in export of ICT products were also discussed there.
Mr Palak said they also discussed joint education cooperation between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, investment in setting up smart cities and working together on artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductor and nanotechnology.
Currently, 650 Gbps internet bandwidth and various IT products, including IoT (internet of things) are being exported from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia.
Appreciating the unprecedented progress of Bangladesh, Ambassador Alduhailan says Saudi Arabia always cooperates in the development of Bangladesh. "It will continue in the future."
Meanwhile, following a meeting with Swedish Ambassador Alexandra Berg von Linde, Mr Palak said Sweden sought to work in areas like building a cashless society, technology transfer, employment generation and building a smart Bangladesh.
"During the meeting, they exchanged views on various issues related to bilateral interests, especially development in the field of telecommunication and information technology," he said.
The minister said Swedish tech institutes have been developing skilled manpower for the past 30 years.
He said Swedish tech giant Ericsson continued to make a significant contribution to the country's telecommunications sector.
Citing Bangladesh as a very lucrative destination for investment, Mr Palak urged Sweden to take advantage of the government's investment-friendly policy to invest more in the ICT and telecoms sector.
Sweden will cooperate in establishing research and development centres at 20 universities to increase the export of ICT products and services as well as the development of telecom infrastructure for the next 17 years.
"Bangladesh-Sweden IT portal will be launched soon for mutual cooperation in the startup sector, knowledge sharing about 5G technology," said Mr Palak.
He expressed optimism that companies like Ericsson, Spotify, Bluetooth and Volvo will participate in the startup summit to be held next July.
BTRC chairman Engineer Mohiuddin Ahmed, post and telecoms department additional secretary Mohammad Golam Sarwar E Kaynat, Startup Bangladesh managing director Sami Ahmed and Hitech Park Authority managing director GSM Zafarullah were present in the meetings.

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