Digital World to kick off in city Wednesday

A three-day exposition, Digital World 2020, will kick off in Dhaka on Wednesday to showcase Bangladesh's advancements in information and communication technology (ICT).

Curtains to the country's biggest ICT event will be raised around 10:30am through a ceremony at the auditorium of the Bangladesh Film Archive in the capital.

President M Abdul Hamid is likely to inaugurate the event from his official residence Bangababhan through video-conferencing platform Zoom. 

This year's event, being organised jointly by the government and the private sector, will be held both in-person and virtually due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic.

The programmes, including the opening ceremony, the award and closing ceremony, will be held at Bangladesh Film Archive.  

The virtual portion of the event will feature software showcasing, e-governance expo, ecommerce expo, ministerial conference, freelancer conference, musical concert and seminars. 

"It is one of the largest ICT expositions and knowledge sharing platforms in South Asia," ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak said.

Nearly 300 stalls will take part in the fair and more than 10 lakh visitors around the world are expected to join this virtual fair, he said.

He continued that the event also will facilitate communication and cooperation between foreign and local investors, venture capitals and icons from the IT world.

The ICT ministry, in association with Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), is organising the Digital World 2020 from December 9-11 with the theme 'Socially distanced, digitally connected'. 

The theme has been chosen to highlight the impact of Covid-19 and the resilience and determination of people to combat the threat of the pandemic, said Palak.