State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak yesterday said the government has attached priority to digitize administration to make public services smooth and transparent aiming to supplement the efforts for building “Digital Bangladesh” by 2021.
The government under the dynamic leadership Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has brought a significant change in the public services system, he told a seminar on “National Backbone Network of Bangladesh Government” in the auditorium of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) in the city.
Secretary of ICT Division Shyam Sundar Sikder, project director of BanglaGovNet Project Md Mahbubur Rahman, representatives of different government and non-government organizations, among others, addressed the seminar with Executive Director of BCC SM Ashraful Islam in the chair.
Palak said, the government has been adopting e-Governance in order to improve public services through improved decision-making process, as well as promoting transparency and accountability of the government’s course of action.
Various legal and policy framework have been developed to expedite the adoption of e-Governance in the country, he added. Palak said ICT Division has launched Development National ICT Infra-Network for Bangladesh government phase-II project involving Taka 1,333 crore to bring 17,500 government offices at the district and upazila levels under ICT network.
The project is bringing Bangladesh Secretariat, Bangladesh Computer Council, seven divisional and all district and 485 upazila level offices of the country under WiFi coverage, he said adding Bangladesh Secretariat and BCC have already been brought under Wifi coverage.
Mahbubur said the BanglaGovNet Project was launched in 2010 aimed at setting public network backbone for implementing e-Government. Under the project, establishment of connectivity between 58 ministries and divisions, 222 departments and directorates and 128 offices at district and upazila levels and 31-kilometer optical cable line is at the final stage.
