Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma on Wednesday said collective effort towards enhancing digital safety has become even more critical now as both Bangladesh and India move towards greater digitalization of their economy, society and governance.

He also said the young and aspirational population in both the countries are moving increasingly towards using the digital space for all their activities.

High Commissioner Pranay Verma, along with State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak attended the closing session of the “Cyber Maitree 2023” hosted by the ICT Division in Dhaka.

Cyber-Maitree is a unique platform and interface for sector experts and professionals from India and Bangladesh to collaborate for cyber security related training and exercises.

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The Indian high commissioner noted that Cyber-Maitree 2023 is particularly relevant in the context of promoting exchange of knowledge, capacity building, cyber resilience, identifying and addressing network vulnerabilities, preparing cyber risk assessment and overall, in generating awareness about cyber security.

All these will help the sector experts of both countries to safeguard the digital space and make it more feasible to safely leverage digital technologies to augment trade, investment and people-to-people engagement, the envoy said.

He said the joint collaborative exercises such as the Cyber-Maitree 2023 have allowed experts from India and Bangladesh to address the cross-section of several related domains such as cyber security, AI, ICT, and IT related human resource development. These factors are integral to achieving digital connectivity and fulfilling the future aspirations of the youth in both countries, he added.

He further laid emphasis on the fact that the India and Bangladesh relationship has reached new heights, with cooperation across several sectors, and with a focus on enhancing connectivity for economic growth and development.

Enhancing digital connectivity, is another facet of this effort, and to this end both countries are engaging through several initiatives, such as the Startup Exchange, the launch of the India-Bangladesh Startup Bridge, establishment of 12 High Tech Parks in Bangladesh, working on simplifying and integrating fin-tech and other innovative technologies.

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In April 2022, India and Bangladesh signed an MoU on information technology and electronics with a focus on strengthening cooperation in e-governance, m-governance, e-public service delivery, research, development and innovation, developing start-ups, capacity building and sharing best practices.

The two countries have also signed an MoU on exchange of information on cyber-attacks and cyber security incidents, cyber security technology cooperation, cyber security policies and human resource development.

The state minister for ICT thanked the high commissioner and the visiting delegation of the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) for sharing their valuable experience and knowledge with the Bangladeshi counterparts and helping Bangladesh in its efforts towards better preparedness for handling emerging cyber security challenges.

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The event was attended by cyber security experts, digital forensic scientists, IT professionals, student trainees and other stakeholders.