The “ASOCIO Award” was handed over to Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

The ASOCIO ICT Education Award was handed over to Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by the Hon’ble State Minister for ICT Division, Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak, MP on Monday, 20^th January 2020 at cabinet meeting. Senior Secretary of ICT Division N M Zeaul Alam PAA was also attended at the time of award handed over.

The Hon’ble Prime Minister was delighted for this acievement. Such an international award will inspire everyone in the country to build a Digital Bangladesh. The Honorable Prime Minister congratulated all for taking the ICT sector of Bangladesh ahead globally.

Earlier, Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Honorable Adviser Mr. Sajeeb Wazed expressed his pleasure and congratulated everyone at the meeting on Tuesday, January 14, 2020 at the conference room of Agartgaon’s ICT Tower for this remarkable achievement. The award was given at the “2019 ASOCIO-PIKOM DIGITAL SUMMIT” held on 12^th November 2019 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by the “Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO)”. This international honorary award has been given in ICT Education category to Startup Bangladesh-iDEA for its special contribution in ICT Sector.

“Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (iDEA) project” of ICT Division starts its journey since 2016 to make a startup culture in the ICT sector bearing its “Startup Bangladesh” banner. Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Honorable Adviser Mr. Sajeeb Wazed inaugurated the “Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (iDEA)” on July 26, 2018. In addition to making significant contribution to the implementation of Digital Bangladesh under his guidance and direction, the project has been working towards the development of local entrepreneurs through funding, legal support, Grooming and creating skilled work force & entrepreneur through training and mentoring in the ICT sector, in recognition of which this award has been achieved.

126 startups have been already funded till now in pre-seed stage by this project. The project is awarding grant up to BDT 10 lakh in pre-seed stage to startup. The Government of Bangladesh has taken a strong initiative to create a national entrepreneurship platform and build its supporting Startup ecosystem for the development of innovation-centered economy and to sustain significant progress. In the meanwhile, Cabinet gives final approval to Bangladesh’s first government venture capital company “Startup Bangladesh” on 30 December 2020. After establishing the Startup Bangladesh company, startups may get investment a maximum of 1 crore BDT and 5 crore BDT respectively in the Seed and Growth round, depending on due diligence and valuation.

Syed Mojibul Huq, Project Director of Startup Bangladesh-iDEA, expressed his sincere thanks and gratitude to ASOCIO, Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) and Selection Committee of ASOCIO Awards for giving this international honorary award.