Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Minister Mr. Mostafa Faruque Mohammed, MP on Saturday noted that in knowledge based society along with other blessings ICT can make financial transactions transparent in both government and private sectors. It can control corruption to a large extent because none can mislead people if they have right information in their hands.
He further noted said, “Many people made fun of the idea of Digital Bangladesh when Awami League mentioned it in their election manifesto. But the miss-concept has been removed now. People have understood that ICT is not a slogan now rather it is a fact of life because we can see the influence of ICT in every sphere of our life. Our aim is to develop the ICT sector through public - private partnership (PPP). The government has taken various initiatives in the urban and rural areas to reach the desired goal in 2021.”
ICT minister made the observations at a roundtable discussion titled “ICTs’ Role in Leadership and Change Management” jointly organised by the Daffodil International University, DIU, and The Independent at the city’s BEL Tower.
Chairman of Daffodil International University Sabur Khan said that a large number of political leaders in the country do not have the ICT knowledge but their interest regarding adopting new technology can make them IT literate. However, a good notion about the importance of ICT has developed in the country so far.
“Technology is now in our hand and we have to utilize it properly for the development of the country. ICT is an important element to build up strong leadership in the country,” he observed.
About making entrepreneurs, Sabur Khan, said that young entrepreneurs can be made with the assistance of ICT. At the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, DCCI, I am planning to make 2000 entrepreneurs. Similar plan can be taken by the government to produce two lakh business innovators.
In the inaugural speech of the roundtable, Mahbubul Alam, Editor of The Independent emphasised on building a strong backbone of cyber connectivity to make information available in every sector for the development of the country.
Mahbubul Alam, Former Advisor to the caretaker government, suggested removing all obstacles for the good use of ICT as it is being misused by some groups of people. Cyber crime in the country is on the rise that has emerged as threat to the society. It is a new type of crime unknown to us even a decade ago. But it has become necessary for Bangladesh to formulate cyber laws and strongly monitor to tackle the online fraudulence and hacking,” he added.
Secretary of the ICT ministry Md Nazrul Islam Khan pointed out four tracks for leaders including information technology for government, capability development, innovation eco-system and global positioning that can help flourish ICT sector.
“At present the use of ICT can be a great tool for trend analysis to understand the cause and effect of any incident. Such analysis can help leaders to take rapid action to resolve the problems,” he said.
SASM Taifur, Chairman, Centre for ICT Policy Research, CIPR, presented a keynote speech at the roundtable. He mentioned, “Bangladesh is still fighting to create an environment of good governance. Now it needs very efficient and strong leaders to address all these issues. Thus we can follow some success stories of Japan, Korea, Malaysia, China etc.
Prof. Dr. M. Lutfar Rahman, Vice Chancellor, Daffodil International University, M Manjur Mahmud, Director and COO of DataSoft; Dr. Kashfia Ahmed, CEO of Win Incorporate; Tapan Kanti Sarker, President of CTO Forum and Shahzaman Mozumder, CEO of Thakral spoke at the roundtable
