State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak on Monday said that Bangladesh has emerged as a role model for women's progress and empowerment due to the government's pragmatic measures taken in the past 14 and a half years.
"Due to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's prudent leadership and her well-designed plans, Bangladesh witnessed unprecedented progress in all sectors, including women empowerment, education and health," he said.
The ICT state minister made the remarks while he was virtually addressing the closing ceremony of a workshop titled 'Training of Trainers (TOT)' for the women IT service providers under the 'Her Power Project' at ICT Tower in the city's Agargaon area, said a press release.
The 'Her Power Project' of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division organized the training programme with a view to creating women entrepreneurs across the country.
Noting that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself named the project as 'Her Power Project', Palak said the ICT Division has been implementing this project after the successful implementation of the 'She Power Project'.
Apart from these projects, he said, the government has taken various initiatives to bring equality among men and women in the economic sector.
The success of creating 'smart entrepreneurs' in 'Smart Bangladesh', however, depends on the success and sincerity of trainers, he said, adding, that after completion of the training and internship, every trainee will be given a laptop, a weapon of conquering the world, to increase women participation in the 'smart economy'.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will distribute the laptops among the trainees, Palak said.
ICT Division Secretary Md Shamsul Arefin, ICT Department Director General Md Mostafa Kamal and ICT Department Director Md Manir Hossain spoke at the event, among others, with Her Power Project Director Rayhana Islam in the chair.
According to the press release, the ICT Department is providing TOT to 200 women ICT service providers through 24 vendor institutions under the project. These trainers in seven batches will provide a five-month-long training to 25,125 women in four categories at 130 upazilas of 43 districts across the country.
A total of 160 women from each upazila and 184 from each sadar upazila will get the training.
