In the bleak arena of connectivity, when the whole nation remained plunged into the conundrum of communication, suddenly a savior, a scintillating star, emerged in the gloomy sky of Bangladesh who created a kindling flame to spur the communication-based revolution in the social plateau of the country. He is the person named Sajeeb Wajed Joy, the blessed son of Hon'ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh H.E. Sheikh Hasina -- the mother of democracy and a sage preceptor of poverty alleviation in this part of the planet. Bangladesh, a land of unprecedented turmoil that lost its all dreams of liberation war after the brutal assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the black dawn of August 15 in 1975 by some military miscreants. However, after a long battle with odds, Sheikh Hasina took the oath as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the second term following a landslide victory in the general election of 2009. Considering how to ensure rapid development of the country, she opted for massive digitalisation of the country as a prime concept. In this context she made her elder son an adviser to the government of Bangladesh on information and communication technology (ICT). Mr. Wazed, a Harvard University graduate and B.Sc. computer science engineer from the University of Texas, Arlington, made full efforts to materialise his mother's dream. Mr. Wazed is regarded as the mastermind of Digital Bangladesh initiatives and promoting the Vision 2021 manifesto of Awami League. Crossing the myriad intricacy of politics he was listed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as one of its 'young global leaders'.
Mr. Sajeeb Wazed Joy took enormous positive steps to transform Bangladesh's IT industry into the country's largest export sector, and with his relentless effort Bangladesh is now enjoying a digital phenomenon in every sphere of life. Mr. Wazed is considered a young innovator and thinker as he has already established a full course digital service extending from rural to urban areas, covering all the academic institutions and offices. Record keeping as well as financial, administrative, judiciary and many other auxiliary services are now rendered using IT. Extension of internet services to the doorsteps of the common people is one of his magnetic approaches and in this Covid-19 pandemic situation many of the academic institutions are continuing their learning sessions using IT-based Zoom platform or webinar technology. However being an ICT adviser to the Prime Minister, he is totally devoted to improving IT-based services in this country so that competent manpower may be created and jobs for millions of youths in this field generated even in the world market. For the total economic emancipation of the country, expansion of IT-based services is required much as in future it will help employ several million young people that in turn will contribute to income generation to boost the country's economic health. Keeping this in mind, Mr. Wazed is on the right track to materialise the Vision 2021 and UN's SDG agenda 2030. Under the 8th five year plan he has taken various initiatives to expand information technology and its related activities in the country. This will be a major driving force for our socioeconomic development. There are about 1.0 million (ten lakh) young people working on various online freelancing platforms in the country and about 6.5 million (65 lakh) Bangladeshi freelancers are working on business process of outsourcing (BPO). Mr. Wazed is a prescience dreamer of IT-based services and with his keen effort Bangladesh became the '57th satellite' owner country of the world as the 'Bangabandhu space satellite' is now a reality, not a dream. Eye-catching improvement in this digitisation process has been found in most of the government offices and people are now using mobile phones, mobile apps, mobile devices, laptops and computers for their business purpose and other development activities. Striking improvement has been made in accessing information about commodity prices anywhere and from any distance of the world. ATM cards, bKash, Rocket, Nagad, money exchange in different forms are being practised by an uncountable number of people to scale up their business performance. E-commerce, E-banking, E-education, E-health, E-admission, E-transaction, E-governance, E-court, E-mail, etc. are the blessings of modern digitisation where Mr. Wazed is the sculptor of this mammoth task. Meanwhile, Hon'ble Prime Minister has been awarded few international awards on ICT for massive development in the IT sector. Hon'ble Prime Minister has nominated for "South-South Co-operation Visionary Award" for her active role in advancing Bangladesh towards the digital expansion of education. In the world summit on information society-2014 the access to information (A2i) programme was awarded in recognition of her role in improving people's lives through the use of (ICT). These are the prestigious awards for the nation. Literally there are about 8500 online digital centres serving throughout the country and people from every nook and corner of the country can use these for various purposes. It can be expressed that Mr. Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the blessed son of Hon'ble Prime Minister H.E. Sheikh Hasina, paved the ways for achieving success in information and communication technology (ICT) and certainly he will be able to build up a technology-based developed nation.
Prof. Dr. Syed Mozaffar Ahmed is Ex-Proctor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU)
