Dhaka: Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Saturday said the government’s success in its drive to build a digital country is more than expectations.  

The minister was addressing the concluding ceremony of a three-day Bangladesh ICT Expo 2016 at the city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC).  

‘There’s no other better weapon than ICT to curb corruption,’ Muhith said adding that the earning of Madanmohan College of Sylhet has increased by eight times after the college introduced online admission system.  

The 75-year-old college used to earn only Tk 8-10 lakh only, which was very low compared to the huge number of students as student leaders from different political parties had the influence in the admission process, he said.

‘The earning from the admission has gone up to Tk 82 lakh after introduction of online admission system,’ he said, adding, ‘We’re halfway through in fully building the country digital one.’  

Bangladesh Computer Samiti (BCS) and the ICT division jointly organised the expo to showcase Bangladesh’s prospects of becoming a ‘hardware manufacturing’ nation.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak chaired the function.  

Right now the prospect of Bangladesh in manufacturing IT hardware is bright as its cost is on the rise in China, Japan, South Korea, Europe and the USA, Palak said.

The National Board of Revenue has issued statutory regulatory orders (SROs) providing 12 types of economic stimulations for investment in Bangladesh’s IT sector.

The facilities for investment in the country’s IT sector are in no way less than any of its key competitors like Vietnam, Malaysia and India.

Bangladesh can go for 4G mobile networks by this year, the junior minister hoped.

ICT Division Secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder said the turnover of the three-day ICT fair is around Tk 20 crore, as there were 67 stalls of local and international ITC companies there.  

The number of its visitors was over 7.50 lakh, while that of its online ones is some 28 lakh.

Though the ICT fair concluded on Saturday at BICC, but the online fair will continue till 10 March, he said.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Posts, Telecommunications and ICT Affairs Imran Ahmad, BCS President AHM Mahfuzul Arif, President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Service (BASIS) Shameem Ahsan and Country Director of Microsoft Bangladesh Sonia Bashir Kabir were present at the function.