Awami League launches new webpage for Sajeeb Wazed Joy

The ruling Awami League has launched a new webpage featuring the entire profile of the prime minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy —from his birth, to his education, to his works  and his accomplishments till date.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 18 Oct 2016, 02:58 PM
Updated : 18 Oct 2016, 04:37 PM

Titled “Sajeeb Wazed : Architect of Future Bangladesh and Visionary Youth Leader”, the new webpage, http://albd.org/sajeebwazed/, illustrates how Joy devised the dream of a digital Bangladesh and is now helping in setting the country on the road to emerging as a  technologically advancednation.

Joy spearheads the ‘Digital Bangladesh’ campaign as a ‘voluntary’ advisor to his mother.

Recently he received the ‘ICT for Development Award’ from a group of US-based institutions.

As chairman of a policy think-tank and research organization, Centre for Research and Information  (CRi), he has helped design a number of programmes for connecting youth with policymakers. Among the programmes have been Let's Talk and Policy Cafe.

Joy graduated in computer science from Bangalore University before doing computer engineering at the University of Texas, Arlington, USA.

He finished his Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He was the first Bangladeshi to be selected as a Young Global Leader for the year 2007 as an Information Technology (IT) specialist by the World Economic Forum.

He is credited with providing leadership to the ‘Digital Bangladesh’ campaign, which was the main election slogan of the Bangladesh Awami League when it returned to power in December 2008.

Since then the rate of accessing government services digitally has increased to a large extent. It is now 35 percent, compared to only 0.3 percent in 2008.

Export earnings from ICT rose to $300 million in 2015 from $26 million in 2009.

The government has set up 5,000 digital centres, which are providing 200 distinct services, across the country. Some 8,000 post offices are on track to become digital centres as well.

Last year, the government opened a 60,000-square-feet software technology park to which 16 companies moved, with 34 more planning to do so soon.

This year in July, Bangladesh's first IT Incubation Centre was launched. The project is expected to create over 100,000 jobs in the coming years.