South Asian countries are fast picking up on the benefits accruing from the use of ICTs. But Bangladesh is not able to keep pace with them specially in the sectors like e-learning, community multimedia centre, MDG, bridging digital divide etc.
This was noted in a review exercise of the Annual Regional Meeting of OneWorld South Asia that took place at Agra in India on 22-23 January 2006. The review meeting, held in the BNNRC's (Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication) conference room on Tuesday, was chaired by Md. Rafiqul Alam, Executive Director of DUS and moderated by Ahmed Swapan, Executive Director of VOICE.
In the meeting Chief Executive Officer of BNNRC, A. H. M. Bazlur Rahman said that there is a need to establish Community Multimedia Centers in the rural areas to bridge the digital divide, achieve MDG, PRSP and WSIS action plan. He also mentioned that OneWorld South Asia has already shown interest in helping Bangladesh in the ICT sector.
M. Kashem Ali of Development Gateway Foundation expressed the concern that the government websites are not updated regularly. To keep pace with the rest of the world, we must update all the government and NGO websites on a regular basis, he added.
Md Akhteruzzaman, Grand Jury of World Summit Award, expressing his frustration said that while there are about 50 educational websites already functional in the different local languages of South Asian countries, there are none in Bangla language.
The meeting also identified a list of activities be undertaken this year. These include creating a mailing list on ICT4D(ICT for development), developing a resource directory on ICT4D in Bangladesh, organising a national seminar on ICT and development, reviewing Bangladesh Country Strategy paper of leading donor agencies, organising a sensitisation meeting on ICT4D with leading donor agencies, holding a sensitisation meeting with corporate sector, publishing a monthly news magazine on ICT4D, case study compilation on best practices and organising an Annual General Meeting for reviewing progress of ICT4D in Bangladesh. It was decided in the meeting that BNNRC will provide all sorts of secretarial support and will facilitate the process.
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