The government has planned a roadmap for the country's telecommunication and ICT (information communication technology) sectors with the major objectives of ensuring broadband internet for all besides combating cyber crime and tackling environment issues, reports BSS.
The roadmap will also aims at managing e-waste to make this sector green while creating massive job opportunities for young IT professionals by encouraging investments from locally and globally renowned IT firms.
The biggest ever IT exposition - Digital World 2014 - was a major initiative to this effect when Fenox VC from Silicon Valley launched a US$200 million fund to invest in technology, internet and media sectors.
As a major breakthrough towards implementing the roadmap, the government had already joined the second submarine cable SEA-ME-WE-5 while expecting to get the country connected to it by the first quarter of 2016, which will help the country boost the internet speed and always stay online.
The second cable will be high class connectivity for both data and voice between Southeast Asia and Western Europe. The government has also started the process of launching country's first satellite "Bangabandhu" in the orbit involving Tk 29.68 billion.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will implement the project by June, 2017. On the other hand, the government has taken initiatives to turn the country's 4,516 Union Information Service Centres (UISCs) into mini outsourcing centres to allow freelancers at grassroots level to work under the trained entrepreneurs.
So far, nearly 200 upazilas of the country has been connected with fibre optic cable.
After creation of 15,000 freelancers at district level, the government has launched the second phase of the Learning and Earning Development Project to develop 55,000 freelancers at upazila level. Currently, some 0.60 million freelancers are working in IT sector.
For implementing the roadmap and expediting the development process of the country's telecom and ICT sectors in line with the vision for a digital Bangladesh by 2021, the government last year merged the Posts and Telecommunication Ministry with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry. The new ministry has been named Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology.
The telecom sector has also been declared as the "thrust sector".
