For attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), there is no option but to jump onto the bandwagon of digital revolution.
Stressing on the need for having a digital revolution for developing countries like Bangladesh, Junaid Ahmed Palak, the State Minister for ICT of Bangladesh said that on the eve of September 20 at the UN headquarter.
The Bangladeshi young ministers were delivering the keynote during a panel discussion attended by high level delegation from different countries including Estonia, Colombia and Namibia.
He said, “The member states of the United Nations agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals, to transform the World by 2030. The Government of Bangladesh has integrated the SDGs in our national development plan as apparent in the 7th 5 year plan (2016 to 2020).”
Palak said, the goals of Digital Bangladesh for 2021 are in alignment with the SDG goals and have been translated into e-Governance initiatives to support the eradication of poverty, ensure food security, improve access to health and education services, develop talent for the 21st century, and provide equitable services for women and people from all economic, religious and ethnic background.
“Keeping this in mind, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has assigned a high level Secretary of the Government as the SDG Coordinator to track and monitor the progress of SDG implementation across all ministries.”
“Keeping this in mind, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has assigned a high level Secretary of the Government as the SDG Coordinator to track and monitor the progress of SDG implementation across all ministries.”
Mentioning about the different ICT-Driven initiatives to fulfill the SDGs, palak again said, “We have set up dozens of telemedicine centers, digital health record systems and developed mobile applications for different healthcare services. We have already established 6,000 Digital Labs in our secondary schools and 15,000 more are in progress.”
“We have developed interactive digital contents for our primary students and installed more than 25,000 smart classrooms, a number of e-Learning sites. In all of our capacity development programs, we earmark at least 30% seats for the women.”
He also said that the ICT Division in Bangladesh has established an Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy with an eye to create a resilient innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Bangladesh. Besides, we’ll deploy smart electricity grids, smart water management system, smart traffic management system to help us achieving ‘Smart Cities and Communities’.
Other panelists of that high level side event Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Minister of Economic Planning and the Director General of National Planning Commission of Namibia Tom Alweendo, Minister of National Planning of Colombia Luis Fernando Mejia commended the initiative of Digital Bangladesh. Assistant Secretary General, Assistant Administrator and Director for the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support of UNDP Magda Martinez-Soliman moderated the high level event. ■
