Dhaka: Not begging from anyone, not with any foreign consultant, we have made Digital Bangladesh with our own talent. We know how to deal with any challenge. If we want to do something or implement it, we leave it at that. There are many more dreams for Digital Bangladesh in the future. My dream is to implement Digital Bangladesh. Now in the future Bangladesh will not only take part in the fourth industrial revolution here, we will lead here.
Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Information and Communication Technology, said this while addressing a webinar titled "12 Years of Digital Bangladesh's Advancement" on Saturday night (December 12). He was speaking via video conference from the United States. At the beginning of the speech, he said, because of Digital Bangladesh, even sitting thousands of miles away, it seems that we are together. This was the dream of digital Bangladesh. When the Awami League government showed us the dream of digital Bangladesh in 2008, no one could have imagined how far it would come.
Sajeeb Waze said, we are not just dreaming of digital Bangladesh, we have shown the dream of development. The development work started by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu after 1971. No one could have imagined the way Bangabandhu took Bangladesh forward or developed it in just one and a half years. If that trend of development could be maintained, Bangladesh would be a developed country today. Our per capita income would be the same as in Europe. We were no less than any country. However, it is unfortunate that the pace of development of our country was completely stopped by killing him on August 15, 1975 and killing his entire family.
"Since then, we have been able to fulfill Bangabandhu's dream of a golden Bengal," he said. In 2008, Internet users were just under 1 percent. Now there are about 12-13 crore internet users in the country. And the Padma Bridge is almost completed. Now the last work is left. Moreover, the work of Metrorail is going on.
Sajeeb Wazed said, we have built 6,500 digital centers in the country. We have provided fiber optic cables to over 3 and a half thousand unions. Where there was no 3G, we have now launched 4G. Our dream is to launch Five G within the next year. In the case of digital, we are not lagging behind. We have conquered space.
"We are currently living in a remarkable year, with an pandemic in early 2020," he said. What would we be like today without Digital Bangladesh? Our government is Awami League government but we have been preparing to work online for the last 5 years. But no one knew that there would be a pandemic. But we did not do that. Our dream was to be fully digitized in Bangladesh. We have built over 40,000 multimedia classrooms. We have discovered our government activities e- document system. Moreover, I have provided internet connection to over 20,000 government offices. When the pandemic starts, the country has to be locked down for two months. But the government activities did not stop there. Then we go to the complete e-document and go to the video conference. There is no obstacle for our country to continue with this digital system.
Comparing the situation in the country where he is staying at the moment, Joy said that the United States is now in lockdown again due to the impact of Covid-19. Covid-19 is still increasing in the USA. Here in this richest country in the world, more than two and a half lakh people have died from Corona. Can you imagine? And only 7 thousand died in Bangladesh. It is also a matter of sorrow that 7,000 lives have been lost. We don't want that either. Those who think of us are poor countries. But we are not a poor country. Are we at the stage where such a pandemic kills over two and a half million people in the richest country in the world and only 7,000 in our country? This has been possible because of Digital Bangladesh. This has been possible due to the right leadership of the Awami League government.
"There are no problems, no disasters that we can't deal with," he said. Under the leadership of our government and the people have a confidence that we will be able to face any kind of challenge. If we want to do something, we want to implement it, we will implement it. We can do it on our own, we can do it on our own and we don't have to reach out to anyone. Digital Bangladesh is implemented in our completed plan. But it is a foreign consultant who brought billions of dollars from the World Bank and then year after year the work will continue slowly. The consultants will make money and the country will make a small profit. We did not do that. Our e-documents, our digital centers are all our inventions of the systems we have.
Addressing the youth, he said, "We have created your self-employment." At the moment, Bangladesh ranks second in the world in terms of freelancers. Domestic companies are investing in our high-tech park, earning about 1 billion last year. It is training thousands of young people every year. Now there is no need to beg from anybody. Bangladesh is standing on its own two feet. We are now a middle income country. We have built the Padma Bridge. What everyone said will never happen, Awami League has done. There are many more dreams of digital in the future. My dream is that we have implemented Digital Bangladesh. Now in the future Bangladesh will not only take part in the fourth industrial revolution here, we will lead here.
"I believe we will discover something in ICT technology in the future," he said. With that in mind, we have passed many new policies in the cabinet. We now want to focus on robotics, on artificial intelligence, on microprocessor design. I believe we can surpass many other countries in technology in the future. New Technology Artificial Intelligence, Robotics Here we will discover something new. You have seen the last 12 years, will see the next 12 years. I will definitely do it if the Awami League is in power.
State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak and International Children Peace Award winner Md. Sadat Rahman were connected in the webinar.