Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday opened a four-day Digital World expo in the capital urging youths to be 'Ready for Tomorrow' to turn in reality of Bangladesh's dream with the ICT sector, reports BSS.
"We have wielded the youths with latest IT technology. So the whole world in their fist now and I hope that they will take the country forward and make the dream of Bangabandhu true," she said.
The prime minister said this while inaugurating the expo at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) here this morning.
Sheikh Hasina hoped that the ICT sector would be one of the largest contributors to country's economic development by 2021 as promising youths have already showed off their capacity in this field.
"Bangladesh's economy is progressing fast with 7.28 percent annual growth. We won't need to have a look at any other sector if we can exploit the potentialities of the ICT," she said.
The premier said the youths of Bangladesh can easily adapt to any new invention. So they would be able to make anything possible in this sector, she added.
Bangladesh's foreign exchange earnings would reach US$ 5 billion a year by 2021 which is now one billion dollar, the prime minister said.
Laying importance on research and innovative activities, the premier also said there is no alternative to build innovative capacity and conduct constant research for flourishing of information and technology sector.
Sheikh Hasina urged all irrespective of political thoughts and opinions to come forward for building a prosperous digital Bangladesh to be enriched science and information technology sector.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and Information and Communication Technology Imran Ahmed and President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) Mustafa Jabbar also spoke on the occasion with State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak in the chair.
Subir Kishore Chowdhury, secretary of the ICT division gave welcome address while a documentary on the progress in the ICT sector was screened on the occasion.
"Digital World, 2017" is being held this year under the auspices of the ICT Division with the slogan of 'Ready for Tomorrow" as part of continuous process to ensure the development of Bangladesh through digitalization.
Official sources said around 400 exhibitors from Bangladesh and abroad including policy makers, senior government officials and ministers, industry leaders, civil society spokespersons, investors and multinational software vendor are taking part in the event.