Top Bangladeshi and US officials argy-bargied over issues like IT and cyber security during the week-long discussions in Washington DC.

Issues like digital economy partnership, global village, protection of technology, parallel policies, infrastructure and altered technology were also discussed at the
US-Bangladesh ICT Consultation meeting held from November 14-19.

The meeting with officials of the US Commerce Department was fruitful, said Hasanul Haque, head of the Bangladeshi delegation.

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"Discussions on what we need to do now to establish the freedom of speech on the internet as well as the security of individuals, society and the state were made," he said.

"From this we got a clear idea about the role of stakeholders and the responsibility of the state. Besides, we've got some guidelines to ensure the safety of the inhabitants of the global village and their equal opportunity in the digital economy."

In the global context of the fourth industrial revolution, the Data Privacy Act, cross-border e-commerce trade policy, coordination among different ministries in national security, advance security technology, security ranking of different countries, public-private partnerships and digital trade agreements between different countries; above all, necessary policy, law, infrastructure and technical security issues for Bangladesh came up in the meeting.

E-Cab General Secretary Abdul Wahed Tamal said that senior officials of several organisations working on cyber security and trade policy with the US Department of Commerce and representatives of various organisations, including Google, Facebook, Visa and MasterCard, discussed the policies with Bangladesh delegation.

"Important discussions were held on various policies for establishing trade relations between the US and Bangladesh, including cyber security, data protection, cross border trade."

On the other hand, Director General of Internet Governance Forum Mohammad Abdul Haq Anu said, "We had a great experience at the meeting." 

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"It has become clear to us how information can play a big role in the development of the digital economy in the future, if we can implement information security on our digital infrastructure.

"With this experience Bangladesh will be able to accelerate the development of our cross-border digital commerce and global digital interconnection in our own culture," he said.