Grameenphone wins Digital Bangladesh Award 2021

Grameenphone (GP) has received the prestigious national ‘Digital Bangladesh Award 2021’ in the ‘institutional category’ for its contribution to the country’s information and communication technology sector.

The award was handed over to the Tech Service Leader and Connectivity Partner to Digital Bangladesh through an award ceremony held to mark the ‘Digital Bangladesh Day 2021’ at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) on Sunday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina graced the event and handed over the award virtually along with State Minister for ICT, Zunaid Ahmed Palak to GP CEO Yasir Azman, said the telecom operator in a statement.

Higher officials from the organisation, including Khairul Basher, Head of Communications, Farhana Islam, Head of Youth, Skills and Employment and Sohel Rana, Lead Specialist, Innovation, Digital and Strategy and other distinguished personnel from various leading organisations, were present at the ceremony.

“We have marked the 50th anniversary of our country's independence this year, achieving remarkable milestones throughout the journey with contribution from the ongoing digital revolution in the country. However, to sustain the momentum and unleash the potential to achieve our vision of a self-sustained and knowledge-based economy we need to harness on the digitalisation and leverage our demographic dividend. Therefore, as a part of our social commitment, we have taken a youth-first approach to facilitate the country in building future-ready leaders, with future-fit competencies, upskilling them through platforms like, "Future Nation" with UNDP; entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem patronization via GP Accelerator, to build an ecosystem that taps into the potential of the 4IR.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, “The government has been putting serious emphasis on creating ICT awareness and promoting technology as the enabler for the promised Digital Bangladesh. In this regard, rewarding the deserving initiatives and the patronising organisations could be a praiseworthy step to keep the spirit high. Winning programmes are paving the way for our nation to prepare for the forthcoming tech revolution in business and other major sectors. Congratulations to all the winners of the national ‘Digital Bangladesh Award,’ your contributions to society shall be cherished.”

GP CEO Yasir Azman thanked the organisers for recognising the organisation’s efforts in upskilling the youth for a better tomorrow.

He said, “I would like to take the opportunity to thank our Prime Minister for recognising our contributions to the Digital Bangladesh journey. I am humbled and honoured to be receiving the award. To reiterate our social commitment and truly empower the nation, Grameenphone believes in taking a youth-first approach, upskilling and reskilling them with industry-first initiatives like FutureNation and GP Accelerator to enable and unleash the potential of the demographic dividend into future drivers of economic progress, and tap into the 4IR opportunities. In this era of digitalization, it is important for us to step up and be a part of the change that is inevitable, and recognitions like this inspire us and motivate us with a deep sense of empowering Bangladesh to collectively equip our youth with future-ready skills and march towards becoming a knowledge-based high-income country by 2041.”