The government signed on Sunday an agreement with a Chinese firm to provide users with faster and cheaper broadband internet service.
Department of Information and Communications Techno-logy (ICT) and China Railway International Group (CRIG) inked the deal, involving Tk 80 billion, to implement a project titled "Establishing Digital Connectivity".
AKM Khairul Alam, Director General of ICT Department, and Wei Xiaojun, the representative of CRIG in Bangladesh, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
Posts, Telecommuni-cations and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar, ICT Division Secretary Zuena Aziz, CRIG President Chen Shiping and Vice-president Wang Lijie were also present at the signing ceremony.
Department of ICT will implement the project. The tenure of the project is from January 2019 to January 2021.
After implementation of the project, users irrespective of their areas or locations (towns and villages) will get faster broadband internet service at the same price/rate fixed by the authority earlier.
Under the project, 35,500 Sheikh Russell computer labs will be set up at educational institutions to benefit seven million students in the country.
In addition, 54 public universities of the country will have computer labs and get high-tech supports.
ICT training labs will be set up in 491 upazilas of the country for imparting training to the people.
One hundred digital villages will be established to provide ICT related training to 10,000 farmers for boosting the agricultural production.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com