South Asian countries are now advancing well in ICT but Bangladesh is not being able to keep pace with them specially in the sectors like, e-learning, Community Multimedia Centre, MDG, bridging digital divide etc.

This was noted in a review meeting held in the BNNRC's (Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication) conference room Tuesday on the annual regional meeting of One World South Asia that took place at Agra in India on 22-23 January 2006.

The meeting was chaired by Md. Rafiqul Alam, Executive Director of DUS and moderated by Ahmed Swapan, Executive Director of VOICE.

In the meeting Chief Executive Officer of BNNRC, AHM Bazlur Rahman said, to ensure bridging digital divide, achieving MDG, PRSP and WSIS action plan, we need to establish Community Multimedia Centers in our rural areas.

He also mentioned that One World South Asia has already shown interest in helping Bangladesh in the ICT sector.

M. Kashem Ali of Development Gateway Foundation said the government websites are not updated regularly. To keep pace with the rest of the world, we must update all the government and NGOs websites on a regular basis, he added.

Expressing his frustration Grand jury of World Summit Award Md Akhteruzzaman informed that about 50 educational websites already produced in local languages of different South Asian countries, but Bangla language is absent.

A list of activities was identified in the meeting, which will take place in this year. These are: A list serve will introduce regarding ICT4D, Develop a resource directory on ICT4D in Bangladesh, Organize a national seminar on ICT and Development, Review Bangladesh Country Strategy paper of leading donor agencies, Organize a sensitization meeting on ICT4D with leading donor agencies, Sensitization meeting with corporate sector, Publish a monthly newsmagazine on ICT4D, Case study compilation on best practices and Organize a Annual General Meeting for reviewing Bangladesh ICT4D. It was decided in the meeting that BNNRC will provide all sorts of secretarial support and will facilitate the process.