Bangladesh to advocate all out connectivity for ESCAP countries
Palak tells visiting UN under secretary general
STAFF REPORTER
To put the ICT development into a fast lane, Bangladesh will push forward for a final proposal to include all the member countries of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) into Asia Pacific Information Superhighway.
State Minister for ICT Division, Junaid Ahmed Palak yesterday said that to the visiting Under Secretary General of United Nation and Executive Secretary of UN-ESCAP Shamshad Akhtar who paid a courtesy visit to Palaks office in Agargaon during her visit in Bangladesh.
In August, last year Bangladesh had been elected chairman of Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway Working Group for the next one year.
During this years meeting, Bangladesh will chair the session of UN-ESCAP steering committee meeting for ICT.
In the last meeting held at Bangkok, Palak highlighted the need for connecting UN-ESCAP countries into Asian Pacific Information Highway saying that inclusive internet is very essential to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This year, as the chair of the session, Bangladesh will place its proposal to materialize that goal, said Palak. This initiative will see the UN-ESCAP members working together for the first time in the area of Internet Development using a multilateral agreement based on a commonly agreed framework, he added.
Palak said that the Asia-Pacific information superhighway came about primarily to address the widening digital divide spreading across the UN-ESCAP Region partly due to poor and underdeveloped basic Internet infrastructure
Meanwhile, As the executive secretary of the UN-ESCAP, Shamshad said that she will provide support Bangladeshs proposal for bringing all the UN-ESCAP member countries into information super-highway to lessen the digital divide among the countries in the Asia Pacific region.
She also termed Bangladesh as a role model for ICT development. She said Bangladesh has shown more visible developments than any other countries within the UN-ESCAP region.
Shyam Shundar Sikdar, the outgoing Secretary of ICT Division, Harun ur Rashid, Additional Secretary of ICT Division, Shushanto Kumar Saha, Additional Secretary of ICT Division, Bonomali Bhoumik, Director General of ICT Directorate and Luna Shamsuddoha, Chairperson of Bangladesh Women in IT (BWIT) were present during the occasion.
