Bangladesh should further open up its economy: Joy

Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy has said Bangladesh should further open up its economy for more foreign investments.

“We are now living in an age of globalisation. We should further open up our economy for more foreign investments,” he said.

He also underscored the need for changing the traditional laws and policies, including the telecommunication policy, to take the country ahead in a faster pace to cope with the changing world.

Joy came up with the statement while addressing a workshop on “Digital Bangladesh: ICT in the Journey of Progress” on Wednesday,

Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad secretariat arranged the workshop in BICC auditorium in the city’s Agargaon in cooperation with the Information and Communication Technology Division organised the workshop to inform the legislators about the Digital Bangladesh initiative.

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury addressed the function as the chief guest while Deputy Speaker Md. Fazle Rabbi Miah, Chief Whip Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury and State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak spoke on the occasion as the special guests. JS Secretariat Senior Secretary Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan chaired it.

The PM’s adviser said: “Many of us have a common thinking that if any foreign company invests in our country, it will only earn profit. Foreign companies not only earn profits but also create employment opportunities. We should change our mindset”.

Referring to Singapore and Malaysia, he said any foreign companies can easily invest and do business in those countries which help boost up their economies. “We also should go in this way,” he said.

“Only the government cannot do everything. If the government wants to do everything, there may be system loss. But in the private sector, system loss occurs hardly,” he said.

Joy said the private sector entrepreneurs should not consider foreign investors as their competitors rather they should work with partnership to go ahead.

 “If that can be possible, we will go ahead very fast. But changes in our laws and policies are needed for that,” he said.

He also said the government has been working to digitise all government services to curb corruption.

“When all the government services will be brought under digitisation, there will be no scope of corruption,” he added.

The PM’s adviser said there are around 1,500 government services and of those, 300 have already been digitised. “Works are underway to bring all the services under digitisation. As the government services are being digitised, corruption is also decreasing gradually,” he added.

Highlighting different development aspects in ICT sector, Joy said very few countries have been able to achieve such a rapid growth in such a short span of time in the ICT sector.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury underscored the need for making the new generation IT enabled to develop them as human resources.

She said a project has been taken to digitise the parliament and ICT Division and Posts and Telecommunication Division will implement the project.