Asocio officers’ meet makes a stir

Paenl of guests at the formal inauguration ceremony

The Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS), an Asocio member, organised the three-day Asocio officer's meeting, held from July 5.

Launched in 1984, Asocio has over nineteen countries of Asia and Oceania and five other countries from North America and Europe as its members. Being the only intra-country ICT federation in this region, Asocio also plays a global role.

The BCS became an associate member of the organisation in 1996 and was given full membership in 2001. It also successfully arranged Bangladesh Show and the Multilateral Trade Visit Program of Asocio in Bangladesh that year.

Over 40 ICT personalities from Australia, Japan, India, Korea, Malayasia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri-Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand came to Dhaka to attend the meeting.

The Asocio Award nomination and 20th anniversary sub-committee meeting was held on July 5. Executives from the member countries were also nominated for awards for their total contribution in the development of Asocio.

On July 6, the delegates of the organisation paid a courtesy call on President Iajuddin Ahmed. The Asocio Executive and Strategic Planning Meeting was also held on the day.

A press briefing was held at Sheraton Hotel on the same day. Manoo Ordeedelchest, president of Asocio, along with ASM Iqbal, president, Bangladesh Computer Samity, Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom, India, Wilson Tan Wi Yan from Singapore and other officers of the organisation shared various matters of the event with the press.

"Bangladesh and other such emerging countries can learn a lot from the experiences of countries like Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, who are currently doing wonders in the field of ICT," said Ordeedelchest.

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (Basis) organised a fellowship dinner for the delegates of Asocio at a city restaurant in the night.

"We have already started working on a plan that would equip every single school in the villages with computers and internet facilities," said Abdul Moyeen Khan.

Science and ICT Secretary Omar Faruk Khan was also present on the occasion and lauded the efforts of Asocio and other such organisations and personalities in strengthening the ICT sector of Bangladesh.

ICT professionals Richard Yen from Taiwan and Lui Kin Ling from Malaysia expressed their eagerness to facilitate outsourcing of software from Bangladesh.

Organisational and strategic decisions and discussions on setting the future priorities and policies were made at the formal meeting, where the main focus was on strengthening the ICT bonds among the countries of the region.

The agendas of the meeting also included a few issues on the ICT sector of Bangladesh and the ways in which it can flourish.

The Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (Ispab) also hosted a fellowship dinner for the Asocio delegates.

The Asocio ICT Summit 2004 would be held in December this year in Sri Lanka. The event will provide an opportunity for the island's ICT sector to receive the much awaited exposure and access to global markets. The exhibition will focus on key segments of growth within the ICT industry.

Segmented areas would, among others, include e-governance technology for the apparel sector, ICT-enabled services and BPO, wireless technology and societal applications.

A consortium of Sri Lankan ICT associations led by the Federation of the Information Technology Industry of Sri Lanka (Fitis) would be hosting the summit. The Software Exporters Association (Sea) and Computer Society of Sri-Lanka (CSSL) would help the consortium.

The presence of key event partners like Microsoft, IBM and other reputed brands would undoubtedly signify the importance of the event, the success of which would be a big boost for the ICT sector of all the regional countries as a whole.