Govt to create Tk100cr fund for Smart Bangladesh vision

The government is set to create a Tk100 crore fund in the upcoming budget for research and innovation aimed at transforming the country into "Smart Bangladesh" by 2041, as envisaged by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The innovation and research projects, tailored towards achieving the vision, by the country's youths will get financed from this fund under a single regulation.

Finance ministry officials said the main theme of the next fiscal year's budget has been fixed with importance on building a Smart Bangladesh. The outline of the Smart Bangladesh 2041 will also be presented in the budget for the fiscal 2023-24.

The outline will feature four strategies – Smart Citizen, Smart Economy, Smart Government, and Smart Society. Besides, it will cover smart education, smart healthcare, smart agriculture, smart commerce and smart transportation.

Research and innovation projects by the youth in these areas will get priority funding. However, whether this fund will be given as a grant or disbursed as a loan, will be decided by formulating a policy after the announcement of the budget.

A ministry official told The Business Standard that the slogan of the next fiscal year's budget is – "Towards Smart Bangladesh after a decade and a half in the journey of development".

Implementation of projects has already started from various ministries to establish Smart Bangladesh. Every ministry has been instructed by the cabinet division to undertake at least one project a year supporting the establishment of Smart Bangladesh.

In the annual performance agreement signed by various ministries of the government with the cabinet division, conditions will be imposed on the ministries in developing Smart Bangladesh. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will lay out the dream and implementation of 'Smart Bangladesh-2041' vision in the budget speech, which will also highlight the challenges.

Finance ministry officials said that Universal Digital ID, Digital Curriculum, Smart Device Access, Smart Bangla Campaign, Smart Health Care, Smart Tax, Digital Leadership Academy initiatives will be proposed to realise the vision.

Besides, by 2025, implementation of Smart Land Management, Smart Postal Service, Smart Judiciary, Smart Borders, Smart Social Safety Net, Police Modernisation, Inclusive Financial Ecosystem, FinTech Accelerator, Centre of Excellence (COE) for emerging technologies will be proposed.