Local innovation must be prioritised for development

State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak said local innovations are playing a crucial role in the country's economic development and employment generation.

"We have to prioritise the local innovations for building a country of a robust economy," he said while inaugurating an innovation centre initiated by the CTO Forum – a non-profit organisation of the Chief Technology Officers (CTO) in Bangladesh on Thursday night.

Innovation centres are necessary for building an innovative generation for the future, Palak told the virtual event as the chief guest. 

He said the initiative would play an important role to turn the youths into skilled human resources and help them learn new disruptive technologies including cloud, artificial intelligence and blockchain.

The state minister promised the CTO Forum to give lands in high-tech parks to build physical innovation centres.

He called upon all, including the CTO Forum members, to establish a knowledge- and technology-based digital Bangladesh in order to materialise the dream of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

CTO Forum President Tapan Kanti informed the state minister that he has a plan to host a hackathon on the ideas received from the innovation centres, marking the golden jubilee of the Victory Day this year.