Chittagong: State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak on Sunday said the government is going to install an IT incubator at Chittagong University (CU) at a cost of TK one billion in order to build skilled manpower.  

He said the CU authority has already donated five acres of land for the IT incubator, which would help generate world-class IT professionals in the country.  

‘Besides, CU central library would be turned into a first-ever full-fledged digital library in the country,’ the state minister said adding that the CU library would be the first of its kind among 37 public universities across the country.  

He also urged the students of higher education to choose the IT sector as a field of their career and develop themselves as skilled human resources to carry forward the journey toward Digital Bangladesh.  

‘In line with its plan to build Digital Bangladesh, the government is relentlessly working to grow the country's ICT sector for building a new generation of skilled human resources,’ he told a seminar on ‘Building Skilled Human Resources and Employment Opportunity’ and laptop distribution ceremony at the Business Faculty auditorium of CU this morning.  

Chaired by CU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury, the function was addressed, among others, by executive director of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) S M Ashraful Islam, Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Shireen Akhter.  

IT/ITES Component Team leader of LICT Project Sami Ahmed presented a power point at the seminar organized by Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance (LICT) Project of the BCC under Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division.

Palak said the government in collaboration with the private sector has taken various initiatives to increase the number of IT professionals to one million within the next three years from the present 2.5 lakh working in the IT sector.  

The ICT Division alone has been creating one lakh skilled human resources by providing world-class IT training so that they could be placed for job in the ICT sector, Palak said adding LICT project has already launched quality training to create 45,000 skilled human resources.  

‘We have launched start-ups responsible for technological innovation for providing support to IT companies and ensuring high levels of investment at Janata Software Park,’ the ICT state minister said.

Palak said the Bangladeshi youngsters are talented and they should develop their career in IT and come up with innovations and ideas to ensure their contribution to turn Bangladesh a middle-income country by 2021 and developed one by 2041.  

‘I am confident enough that the next innovations and applications like facebook, whats up, youtube will come from Bangladeshi young talents,’ the ICT state minister said.  

In his motivational speech, SM Ashraful Islam said it is the students who would develop technological applications or systems and solve problems using technology or supporting people who use it.  

Within the IT industry there are also jobs in business, marketing, human resources and finance, he said giving a brief picture of prospect of the IT sector.  

Later, the ICT state minister distributed laptop among the meritorious students who are not affluent to buy computer.