No alternative to developing software for smart Bangladesh: Speaker

BASIS Soft Expo 2023 kicks off

Parliament Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Choudhury on Thursday said there is no alternative to developing software for building Smart Bangladesh. She said this country will become a happy, rich and smart one by 2041 under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, she said while opening ‘BASIS SoftExpo 2023’ organised by Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) at Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center in Purbachal (Narayanganj) on the outskirts of the capital. “One of the foundations of Smart Bangladesh would be making citizens smart and they will have to be proficient in using information and technology,” she added. Post and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar and State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak addressed as the special guests at the opening ceremony of the exposition. BASIS president Russell T. Ahmed presided over the function, while Convener of BASIS SoftExpo 2023 Abu Dawud Khan delivered the welcome speech, said a Parliament release. Dr Shirin Sharmin said the country’s dependency on software is increasing. “But the invention of new information technology is constantly challenging our capabilities. To face this challenge, the youths will have to be made skilled and qualified human resources.” She thanked Zunaid Ahmed Palak and BASIS for bringing the hard copies of questions and answers in Parliament under a software system. The Speaker said the use of information technology through e-filing has also started in the official work of the Parliament Secretariat. BASIS members, local and foreign ICT experts and IT entrepreneurs, among others, were present in the event.