Joy prods youths to master IT skills, says Facebook is ‘Fakebook’

Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy has urged the youths to become entrepreneurs by mastering IT skills instead of waiting to get government jobs or wasting time on the social media.

He spoke at the opening session of the Business Process Outsourcing or BPO Summit 2018 at a Dhaka hotel on Sunday.

Joy also urged them "not to spend a great deal of time on the social media".

He said Facebook has become ‘Fakebook’, referring to the youth’s ‘addiction’ to such social networking sites.

He cited the recent student movement for reforms to quotas in government jobs and said, “The government has taken measures to reform quotas.

“But what I want to say is we can recruit only 3,000 to 4,000 candidates a year in our public administration, which is very little in number (considering the rate of unemployment).

“We can create more jobs in the IT sector than this (public administration). What I have to tell you is you can change the trend and lean towards the IT sector instead of government jobs,” he said.

The Bangladesh Association of Call Centre and Outsourcing or BACCO organised the third BPO summit in association with the ICT Division.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son said the government was providing IT training to 30,000 youths every year and set a target to train 100,000 youths in 2021.

He said BACCO and the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services or BASIS could use this manpower.

“We are creating an ecosystem that will allow the youths to become entrepreneurs after undergoing training. Bangladesh has become the number 1 destination in the freelancing sector. I can now tell you this,” Joy said.

“All you need is a laptop and internet. We are also ensuring fast internet connections. Anyone in the IT sector will be able to earn money from anywhere in Bangladesh,” he said.

The prime minister’s adviser hoped BACCO’s annual earnings would cross $300 million from the BPO sector, which he said would create 100,000 jobs within 2021.

According to him, Bangladesh’s annual earnings from the sector grew from $25 million to $8 billion in 10 years.

Speaking about the dangers of the ‘abuse’ of the internet by youths, he said, “The youths’ addiction to the social media is reaching a dangerous level. The youths hold a huge power, and they have many responsibilities to the society.”

“Seeing their internet addiction, I must say Facebook is ‘Fakebook’ now,” he said.

He also criticised the use of the social media to propagate hate speeches and fake news.

“It’s impossible for us to control the entire internet system alone in Bangladesh. If we shut down the social media, everyone will bitterly criticise us. And it won’t be right.

“Hate speech circulated on the internet creates confrontation in society. It cannot be called free speech in any way. We cannot support it,” he said.

Joy said the parliamentary standing committee on the post, telecom and IT ministry has already drafted the digital Act. “We will never allow hate speech and spread of false information.”  

“We are taking a firm stance like other countries have against hate speech so that no one can arouse communal conflict by using the digital media,” he said.  

Post, Telecommunications and IT Minister Mustafa Jabbar chaired the session. State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak and BACCO President Wahid Sharif, among others, also spoke.

Bangladeshi and overseas IT experts, policymakers, researchers, students and others in the BPO sector are joining the two-day summit which will have altogether 10 seminars.

BASIS, Bangladesh Computer Society, Bangladesh Women in Technology, the IP Association of Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Mobile-Phone Importers’ Association are co-organisers of the summit.