Sajeeb Wazed Joy receives 'ICT for Development Award' in New York

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who spearheads the ‘Digital Bangladesh’ campaign as a voluntary advisor to his mother, has received the ‘ICT for Development Award’.

New York Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 20 Sept 2016, 07:48 AM
Updated : 20 Sept 2016, 09:28 AM

The award recognises Joy’s “outstanding leadership and commitment towards ICT and Competitiveness as a tool for sustainable development”.
 
Actor Robert Davi handed him the award at a high-level reception at One UN Plaza Millennium Hotel’s conference room in New York on Monday.
 
Hasina, special guest of the ceremony, said: “Joy taught me how to operate a computer. Therefore, he is my teacher.”
 
“He is the mastermind behind the development of information-technology in Bangladesh through which people from all spheres are becoming self-dependent. I am proud to have him as my son,” she added.
 
Joy, upon receiving the award, said: “The credit goes to all the officers and employees of the Bangladesh government. They are all working together for implementing the vision of Digital Bangladesh.”
 

The World Organisation of Governance & Competitiveness, Plan Trifinio, Global Fashion for Development, and School of Business of University of New Haven, Connecticut have initiated the award to observe the first anniversary of the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
It is the first ever award to be given by the organisers to anybody.
Joy was the first Bangladeshi to be selected as a Young Global Leader for the year 2007 as an Information Technology (IT) specialist by the World Economic Forum.
He is credited for leadership to the ‘Digital Bangladesh’ campaign which was the main election slogan of the Bangladesh Awami League when it came to power in December 2008.

Since then the rate of accessing government services digitally has increased drastically. It is now 35 percent, compared to only 0.3 percent in 2008.

The ICT export earnings rose to $300 million in 2015 from $26 million in 2009.

The government has set up 5,000 digital centres, which are providing 200 distinct services, across the country. Some 8,000 post offices are on track to become digital centres as well.

Last year, the government opened 60,000-square-feet software technology-park in which 16 companies moved in, 34 more are planning to do so soon.

This year in July, Bangladesh's first IT Incubation Centre has been launched which is expected to create over 100,000 jobs in coming years.
 
Joy graduated in computer science, physics and mathematics from Bangalore University, and did computer engineering at the University of Texas, Arlington in the US.
 
He completed his Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
 

At Monday's ceremony, Sheikh Hasina remembered how Joy was born during the 1971 Liberation War when she was confined at home by the Pakistani forces.
“Joy was born at a time when I did not have any relative nearby,” she said.
She also recalled how she was arrested during the state of emergency in 2007 imposed by the then military-backed caretaker government, which coincided with Joy's time at Harvard.
Thanking the organisers, the prime minister said: “This award not only recognises Joy for his role in leading the backward people ahead but also honours the overall spirit of the people of Bangladesh, I believe.”
LGRD Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, State Minister of Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, former foreign affairs minister Dipu Moni, Bangladesh Ambassador in Washington Mohammed Ziauddin and Bangladesh Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Masud Bin Momen were also present at the ceremony.