Prime Minister’s Press Secretary AAM Saleh Shibly. File photo

DHAKA, April 26, 2026 (BSS) – Prime Minister’s Press Secretary AAM Saleh Shibly has said that Microsoft founder Bill Gates visited Bangladesh on a brief trip in 2004 at the invitation of Tarique Rahman.

“The incumbent Prime Minister Tarique Rahman met Bill Gates in the United States in 2004 and invited him to visit Bangladesh. After that, Bill Gates came on a brief visit,” he said.

The press secretary said this while speaking at a policy dialogue titled 'Building Bangladesh's Digital Future: Telecom, Data and Cyber Security Bill 2026', organised by Bangladesh ICT Stakeholders Alliance (BISA) at a club in the capital on Saturday evening.

“The Prime Minister always says, ‘we may have differences of opinion, but we wanted a democratic state’. But in the past few days, the kind of language being used online by a group to criticize is not the language of people,” Shibly said, adding, using abusive language is not freedom of speech.

BNP Standing Committee Member Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan addressed the event as the chief guest while Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapon spoke as the guest of honor.

Dhaka South City Corporation Administrator Bir Muktijoddha Md Abdus Salam and BISA Chief Adviser Mustafa Rafiqul Islam Duke also spoke at the programme with BISA President Faisal Alim in the chair.

Entrepreneurs, legal experts and policymakers from the ICT sector were present at the dialogue.