Bangladesh and Japan on Monday signed the exchange of notes on the Japanese grant Aad for two projects. Iwama Kiminori, Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh and Sharifa Khan, Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance, signed the documents representing the respective governments. One is to provide the grant for the “Project for Improvement of Equipment for Technical Education” - up to JPY 997million, approximately USD7.7 million. Another is to provide an additional grant for the costs of the development of Bangladesh Institute of Governance and Management（BIGM), the augmented grant of which is up to JPY2,762 million, about USD 21 million. Read more: Languages essential tools to communicate, share knowledge: UN expert “It gives me pleasure to sign both of these 2 projects, which are important supports for Bangladesh to develop world-class human resources. In this regard, these are particularly essential toward graduation from the least developed countries (LDC) status in 2026 and to become a developed country in 2041," said Ambassador Iwama. The grant for the “Project for Improvement of Equipment for Technical Education” is to provide training equipment in the field of electrical, electronic, mechanical and computer to Dhaka Polytechnic Institute, Dhaka Mohila Polytechnic Institute, and Technical Teachers Training College. This supports human resource development with a scientific and mathematical background and engineering skills, with a view to shifting the industrial structure in order to ensure competitiveness in the international market. The additional grant for BIGM is to construct new facilities and to procure equipment for the training of senior administrative officials and for policy research at BIGM, for which additional cost is incurred due to the price escalation affected by difficult global conditions. In order to promote sustainable development of Bangladesh in the future, it is essential to strengthen the policy formulation and execution capacity of senior administrative officials. BIGM is a higher education and research institute, and offers master's programs in the public sector to people from diverse backgrounds, including the private sector as well as the public officials.

Bangladesh Data Center Company Limited (BDCCL), the Bangladesh government-owned data storage and disaster recovery services provider, has selected Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Dedicated Region Cloud @Customer to provide sovereign-hosted cloud services to the Bangladesh government.  The initiative, led by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division, aims to accelerate the country towards its goal of building knowledge-based economy by extending the use of secure, sovereign-hosted, enterprise-class cloud and digital technologies to the various government agencies and ministries. READ: Bangladesh wins 4 awards at Asia-Pacific ICT competition To achieve the goal of a digital Bangladesh the government recognized the need to increase the availability of sovereign-hosted cloud services to support the various critical systems driving government, particularly for secure workloads in National Security, e-governance, e-filing, health, human services, and other departments, and government agencies dealing with sensitive data of Bangladesh. The Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer will enable BDCCL to run its entire IT portfolio on cloud infrastructure and have physical control of infrastructure and data, ensuring that Government users meet the most demanding data sovereignty requirements.  State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said that the adoption of digital technologies is of crucial importance for our country’s advancement.  Locally delivered and highly secure government cloud will accelerate our progress towards Digital Bangladesh – nothing like this currently exists, he said. We can accelerate the modernization of key government activities such as e-voting, e-health service, e-filing, virtual courts, e-judiciary, and so on.  At the same time, we can provide significant cost benefits to the government entities that will be able to bring robust, secure new applications and services online quickly, cost-effectively, he added Managing Director of  Oracle Bangladesh Rubaba Dowla said, there is flourishing domestic and regional market demand for sovereign hosted, enterprise-class cloud capabilities. Already, the Government of Bangladesh has made robust investments in large-scale technology-based projects, digitizing airports, initiating smart grid projects, and commencing digital connectivity projects, among others. “We are excited to work with BDCCL under ICT Division and to continue to build our strong relationship with government, making cloud innovation more accessible to government with superior security, infrastructure, performance and reliability,” she said  READ: ICT division to digitize 73 libraries, says Palak Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer will be hosted from Tier IV National Data Center located at the Bangabandhu Hi-Tech City in Kaliakair in Dhaka. 

The High Court on Monday issued a rule questioning why the government's decision to not provide new gas connection in residential areas will not be declared illegal. The Court also asked why returning money instead of giving connections and the government's inactivity to provide connections in households will not be declared illegal. The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Md Mostafizur Rahman issued the rule during a hearing on a writ petition filed in this regard. READ: Won’t provide new gas connections to households: FM The bench asked the senior secretary of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Petrobangla Chairman, Managing Directors of Titas, Karnaphuli and Bakhrabad Gas to reply to the rule within next four weeks. Lawyer Md Wazi Ullah with Azim Uddin Patwary and Afroza Sultana appeared for the petitioner’s side at the hearing while Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar stood for the state. On April 27, in the monthly coordination meeting of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division of the ministry the decision to return money after cross checking to those who submitted money through demand notes was taken as no new household gas connection to be provided anymore. On October 4, president of Chattogram Gas, Electricity and Water Consumer Unity Alamgir Nur, its secretary general AKM Waliullah Haque and consumer MD Nurul Alam filed a writ petition challenging this decision of the government. Petitioner’s lawyer Wazi Ullah said, according to law, the government is obligated to provide connection within a fixed time if money has been submitted through demand note for getting gas connection. READ: Illegal gas connections of 2,000 families disconnected Even after the determined time has passed, the consumers didn’t get a connection, rather a decision to return the money was taken which is illegal, he said. The HC in its rule today also questioned why directions to give gas connections to the petitioners will not be given, said lawyer Wazi Ullah.