Bangladesh brings in Chinese company to strengthen digital communication

Bangladesh has put the China Railway International Group or CRIG in charge of a project to strengthen nationwide digital communications.

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase on Wednesday gave the final approval to Establishing Digital Connectivity Project on a budget of Tk 39.74 billion, 80 percent of which is being met through Chinese loans.

Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Md Zillur Rahman Chowdhury confirmed Bangladesh was going into a G2G agreement with China to directly purchase the necessary equipment, physical work and services of the state-backed company.

“...The project aims to increase production and build capacity by bringing everything online, the whole country onto the same network,” he said.

“It will train people around the country to enable them to join digital operations. High schools and colleges will also be connected.”

The massive project will connect districts and Upazilas through 545 lane connections, set up robotics, 3D and VLSI labs, servers, network operation centres, 10 digital villages through integrated smart sensor devices and a 21-floor building among other facilities.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal lauded this as an opportunity to create employment opportunities.

Drawing from a CPD study, he said, “Even during the pandemic, as many as 100,000 people in the country were employed in the e-commerce sector. There will be recruitment windows for another 500,000 people in the sector this year. This project will boost these opportunities.”

He highlighted employment as a key factor for considering projects in the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase; the other being revenues to pay back the loans for a project.

The committee also greenlighted a proposal from the Directorate General of Food involving the purchase of 50,000 tonnes of wheat from India’s Bagadiya Brothers Pvt Ltd at the expense of Tk 1.72 billion.

A Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation or BPC proposal to import 100,000 tonnes of high sulphur furnace oil from Indonesia’s Bumi Siak Pusako Zapin for Tk 5.88 billion was also approved in the meeting.