The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday cleared the 'Enhancing Digital Government and Economy (EDGE)' project involving a huge amount of Tk over 25.41 billion, aiming to turn Bangladesh into a digital economy.
Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under the ICT Division will implement the project in the country by December 2026 with the World Bank's finance of Tk over 25.07 billion and the government's finance of Tk 345.9 million.
The approval of 10 projects placed by eight ministries came from the ECNEC meeting held with ECNEC chairperson and prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The PM joined the meeting virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban, while others were concerned from the NEC conference room in the city.
"A total of 10 projects –-five new and five revised ones -- were approved in Tuesday's meeting. The total estimated cost of the projects is Tk over 74.47 billion (only additional costs of revised projects were counted here)," said planning minister MA Mannan while briefing reporters after the meeting.
Of the total cost, Tk over 36.82 billion will be borne from the government fund, while Tk over 1.53 billion will come from the funds of an organisation concerned and Tk over 36.10 from foreign sources as soft loans, he said.
Talking about the EDGE project, planning commission's member Nasima Begum said the remaining works of building Digital Bangladesh will be done under the project.
The main project objective is to create a digital economy-friendly environment and provide policy support for development of the digital economy and thus face the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution by designing the strategies and action plans as well as creating skilled manpower and employment scopes.
The major operations of the EDGE project include procurement of ICT technology, software, office equipment and vehicles; procurement of consultancy services; training and research on digital economy and block allocation for facing post-Covid situation.