DHAKA, Aug 19, 2023 (BSS) - State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak today urged the leaders of G-20 member countries to march forward together with mutual cooperation instead of competing with each other to maintain the equal partnership of every member of the alliance.

He made the call while speaking as Bangladesh representative at a ministerial level meeting titled 'Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)' of the G-20 forum with the slogan 'One world, one family, one future' at a hotel in Bangalore, India, said a press release here.

Noting that India is well advanced in various areas of digital public infrastructure, the ICT state minister Bangladesh is interested to use the tools used by India to develop DPI.

Like other countries in the world, Bangladesh is using DPI as a key to build a digital economy and society, he said, adding that in the last 14 years, Bangladesh has achieved significant success under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the development of digital infrastructure.

In fact, affordable and accessible internet, digital verifiable payment platforms, smart verifiable IDs and Bangladesh National Digital Architecture have been ensured, he said.

About 1.3 million people of the country are now connected to the internet due to the creating citizen awareness regarding the internet use, the ICT state minister said, adding broadband internet connection has been provided to over one lakh educational institutions and 80,000 government offices.

At the same time, 52,000 websites have been developed while the services are available from only one mobile 'govt: app', he said, adding 12 crore smart ID card holders are getting 83 types of government services digitally.

About 71 million mobile financial wallets have been created in the country after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave the decision to set up the National Payment Switch in 2010, Palak noted.

Similarly, after setting up the inter-transaction platform 'Binimoy', now initiatives have been taken to develop inter-transaction system between all types of payment gateways and accounts, he said.

India's Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw presided over the meeting while ministers of participating countries, including Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, United Arab Emirates, as well as representatives from development organizations of different countries joined the event.

The G20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 developed and developing countries and the European Union (EU).

It holds discussion on various global issues such as global economy, climate change mitigation and sustainable development.