Salman stresses tech-savvy, skilled manpower for Smart Bangladesh
Prime Minister's Private Sector Industry and Investment Adviser Salman F Rahman has underscored the need for creating technological knowledge-based skilled manpower to face the challenges of graduating from the status of Least Development Country (LDC) and marching towards the vision of a "Smart Bangladesh".
"Apart from developing Smart citizens, extensive work needs to be done on education and health sectors in order to achieve the goals of Smart Bangladesh," he said, while talking to reporters after attending a meeting on the "Policy Dialogue on Roadmap for Smart Bangladesh" at the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (Bida) Bhaban in the capital's Agargaon on Monday.
Bangladesh should remain cautious to avoid falling into the "middle-income trap" like Sri Lanka, Pakistan or many other countries, he added.
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"As the country is graduating, there are challenges ahead. Many countries that have transitioned from LDCs have fallen into the trap of middle-income due to lack of proper action. It is a terrible trap. We are marching towards the goal of implementing the master plan to build a Smart Bangladesh like the idea of Digital Bangladesh," said Salman F Rahman.
The biggest challenge in implementing the idea of Smart Bangladesh is to create a skilled workforce, he said, adding that Bangladesh has made considerable progress there.
"We want to work on skill development through coordination between academia, the industry and the government. We held an overall discussion on teaching coding from primary school, along with higher skill development, and other works to be done," he added.
He said that Bangladesh has good potential in the semiconductor industry where several companies are already working and there is a roadmap from the ICT ministry.
"The global market size of the semiconductor industry is more than $1 trillion. In the next five years, we can export at least $2-3 billion in this industry," he hoped.
He further stressed the need for working on Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Robotics Things, mentioning that the 4th Industrial Revolution is already happening.
"If we can adapt to the technological advances that are coming all over the world, we can get out of the middle-income trap," he said.
Salman F Rahman also urged the ICT state minister to hold a meeting with stakeholders, along with the Department of Telecommunications, to determine what budgetary supports are needed to implement the Smart Economy Plan for Smart Bangladesh.
At the meeting, ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, "Now we have the basic soft infrastructures of mobile networks, e-services, smart cards etc. Meanwhile, a service eco-system is developed, which can be raised vertically, as our models are appreciated all over the world". He added that promising progress in all areas of Bangladesh will help achieve the vision of transforming into a smart country by 2041.
