Mustafa Jabbar raises hopes for faster digitalisation

The government has tapped the country’s leading IT entrepreneur Mustafa Jabbar to head the telecom and information technology ministry strengthening its push for ‘Digital Bangladesh’.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 2 Jan 2018, 03:51 PM
Updated : 2 Jan 2018, 07:58 PM

After running the ministry with two state ministers—Tarana Halim for posts and telecom and Zunaid Ahmed Palak for ICT—for more than three years, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has now chosen the 68-year-old for the portfolio.

Jabbar, who founded Ananda Computers, is best known for developing the first Bangla keyboard ‘Bijoy’. He heads the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services or BASIS — the trade body of IT entrepreneurs.

On Tuesday, he was sworn in by President Md Abdul Hamid at the Bangabhaban in a major cabinet shuffle. Several government sources confirmed that he will be assigned to steer the telecom and IT ministry.

Narayon Chandra Chanda, who had been serving as the state minister for fisheries and livestock, and AKM Shajahan Kamal MP took oath as ministers. Kazi Keramat Ali MP was sworn in as a state minister at the same ceremony.

Hasina, who attended Tuesday’s oath-taking ceremony, had kept the telecom and IT portfolio to herself since October 2014, when she fired Abdul Latif Siddique over his controversial comments on hajj.

Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy assists her in the capacity of the ICT affairs adviser to the PM.

Analysts believe Jabbar will add speed to the government’s digitalisation efforts ahead of the upcoming national election. He has been in the Awami League-led government’s journey toward building a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ from the very beginning.

Jabbar has been made a technocrat minister as he is not elected to parliament. The Hasina administration’s Religious Affairs Minister Matior Rahman, Science and Technology Minister Architect Yeafesh Osman and Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam are also technocrat ministers.

Jabbar sat on several government committees on ICT affairs, including the prime minister-formed Digital Bangladesh Taskforce. He is also a member of the Bangladesh Copyright Board.

According to his company Ananda Computers, Jabbar floated the idea of a Digital Bangladesh in an article published on Mar 26, 2007.

The next year, the Awami League included the pledge of a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ in its election manifesto.

Born in 1949 in Brahmanbaria, Jabbar graduated in Bangla Literature from Dhaka University.

He had been active in student politics as member of the Bangladesh Chhatra League or BCL and took part in the 1971 Liberation War when he was a university student.

He continued his foray in student politics after the war.

When the BCL split in 1972, Jabbar joined the faction backed by the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, said Dr Mushtuq Hussain, who sits on the standing committee of a faction of the party.

Mustafa Jabbar (File Photo)

Jabbar started off his career as a journalist with the Daily Ganakantha, which started publishing from Dhaka in early 1972.

In 1973, Jabbar was elected as the publicity secretary of the Dhaka Union of Journalists.

After the Ganakantha was shut, he got involved in the businesses of travel agency, printing and publication.

Jabbar had served as the general secretary of the Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh or ATAB.

He started a venture involving computers and IT in 1987 and launched the Bijoy Bangla Keyboard and software on Dec 16 a year later.

Several of his books on ICT and computers are textbooks for primary, secondary, and higher secondary students and as well as in the undergraduate level.

A founder member of the Bangladesh Computer Samity or BCS and its four-time president, Jabbar has also anchored several television shows on IT.

He has received several awards recognising his role in the expansion of ICT in Bangladesh.

The BASIS has organised a reception for him on Wednesday.