Dhaka: Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar on Saturday said Bangladesh will be ready to lead the fourth industrial revolution by making 65 percent of its youths tech-ready.

‘Our greatest assets are talents. Using that over the next five years, Bangladesh, influenced by the dynamic visionary of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, will be in such a position which will surprise the world,’ said the minister, reports the UNB.

Jabbar came up with the observations while speaking as the chief guest at a roundtable discussing titled ‘Forth Industrial Revolution - Are We Ready?’ at Brac Inn auditorium in the city.

At the discussion, Jabbar also said there are lots of challenges to face the 4th industrial revolution but there is nothing to worry about. ‘We had missed the first, second and third revolutions but hope we’ll lead the fourth one.’

To get ready for that, the minister said, he will try to do his best to make ICT education mandatory, even in primary education.

He said it is difficult to compare indexes from 2008 to 2015. ‘In 2008, 7.5 Gbps internet was used in the country. In 2009, it crossed 900 Gbps. Internet users have increased from 40 lakh to eight crore.’

He also mentioned that Bangladesh is the first country of the world which has built Digital Union Centres. ‘By the time, implementation of various programmers has started to address the existing challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.’

Now the main challenges are education system, cyber security and making all institutions paperless, he mentioned.

There is no alternative to providing technical education from the primary level and digitising the country’s education system, he said.

Jabbar highlighted Bangladesh’s success in producing digital devices, saying that six factories have been inaugurated in the country over the last four months.

‘In the next two months, computer motherboards will be manufactured in the country. In continuation of these, Bangladesh will take a position in the world’s digital device market.’

Former BASIS President Abdullah H Kafi, DCCI President Osama Taseer, A2I Project Director Mostafizur Rahman and Director of Digital Engineering Transmission Directorate Mushfiqur Rahman, among others, spoke on the occasion.