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Bangladesh wins WSIS award for 6th time
DHAKA, April 10, 2019 (BSS) – Bangladesh has won the world’s prestigious award in ICT sector – ‘World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Prize-2019’ for its outstanding contribution to the development of ICT.
The Establishment of Bangladesh National Digital Architecture (BNDA) and e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) Project of Bangladesh Computer Council won the WSIS Winner Prize in category-6 this year.
WSIS Forum Chairman and Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar and State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak jointly received the award on behalf of Bangladesh from International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary General Houlin Zhao in Geneva of Switzerland on Tuesday, a press release said today.
Besides, eight projects of Bangladesh have won the WSIS Champions Prize in different categories.
The projects are the Development of National ICT Infra-network (Info-Sarker) project, Creating Awareness on E- Right to Information (E-RTI) through Community Radio Project, Teachers’ Portal, E- Climate justice and resilience through Community Radio in coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh, Geo data to control late blight fungal disease in potato in Bangladesh, IT For The Differently Able and Mobile Based Age Verification before Marriage Registration to Stop Child Marriage project.
The WSIS Prizes recognise individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies, research institutions and private-sector companies for leveraging the power of tech towards the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
This year, for the eighth edition of the contest, a total of 1,062 projects were nominated, compared to 492 last year. Furthermore, about two million people and entities voted on the projects, which was almost twice as many as in 2018. The nominated projects cover the globe: almost one-third of the projects (29 percent) originate from Asia and the Pacific; 27.7 percent from Western Europe and North America; 19.4 percent from Latin America and the Caribbean; 16.9 percent from Africa; 6.5 percent from Eastern Europe; and 0.5 percent are international projects.
The WSIS Forum is co-organised by ITU, UNCTAD, UNDP and UNESCO, in collaboration with more than 30 other United Nations agencies. More than 3,000 ICTs experts and stakeholders from around the world come to network, showcase innovation, exchange good practices, and share new initiatives and information on the use of ICT for good.
Mustafa Jabbar is now leading a nine-member Bangladesh delegation to Geneva. He is expected to return home by April 14.
The delegation comprises of State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Information and Communication Division Secretary N M Ziaul Alam, BTRC Chairman Jahurul Haque, Posts and Telecommunications Division Deputy Secretary Urmy Tamanna, the minister’s private secretary Mohammad Khurshid Alam, BTRC Director (SS) Lt Col Mohammad Azizur Rahman, BIMEE-Dhaka Co-founder Bijoy Jabbar, and Project Director of Amader Gram ICC for Development Reza Selim.
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