25,000 tablet PCs distributed amongst Govt Officials

To implement the vision of e-governance, the government of Bangladesh is distributing 25,000 Media Pads (Huawei Tablet) amongst government employees. Using a 2 GB internet package of state-owned telecom operator Teletalk, the officials will be able to stay connected with their offices 24/7. On the occasion of formally handing over the tabs to employees from different branches of the government, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, ICT Affairs Adviser to the PM, said that it is part of the Info-Sarkar (info-government) which will be paving the road for a true digital Bangladesh by 2021.

These tablets were disbursed as part of the ICT Infra-Network for Bangladesh Govt. Phase-II, popularly dubbed as Info-Sarkar. This two year project was initiated on 2013 and is funded by the Chinese government. This high profile project includes expansion of the Data Center of Bangladesh Computer Council, intra-network connectivity of 18,130 offices, government cloud platforms, Wi-Fi coverage of the secretariats, erection of a Disaster Recovery Center in Jessore, tablets for the government officials etc.

The Joint Secretary and Project Director of Info-Sarkar informed The Daily Star that so far 18,000 tabs were being distributed countrywide. He also said that, “We started the implementation phase of this project from November 26th, 2013. Despite hartals and blockades, we were able to distribute the devices to the remotest administrative offices on schedule. 55 officials from every district and 30 officials from every Upazilla will be getting the Media Pad. The total project will cost Taka 1,333.44 crore.” M. Ashraf Hossain, Deputy Project Director of Info-Sarkar said, “The 10.1 inch tablet is manufactured by Huawei. The device model is MediaPad 10 Link+ and comes with Android 4.2, 1 GB RAM and 8GB ROM. In addition to the tablets, we are also distributing 800 videoconferencing systems.” 

Present at the handing over ceremony held at Bangladesh Computer Council Auditorium were State Minister of ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Secretary of ICT Division Shyam Sundar Sikder, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose, Principal Information Officer Tasir Ahmed, Joint Secretary and Project Director of Info-Sarkar Saiful Islam, Deputy Project Director M. Ashraf Hossain and many top officials.

After handing over the tabs to the 14 officials from different departments of the government, Sajeeb Wazed via video conference chatted with the Upazilla officials of Tungipara Upazilla, Gopalgonj and Pirganj Upazilla, Rangpur. While video conferencing, he said that by next year the government plans to launch 4G. He also requested the Upazilla officials to use the devices to the fullest.