Mustafa Jabbar going to get Telecom-ICT portfolio

The government has tapped the country's leading IT entrepreneur Mustafa Jabbar to head the telecom and information technology ministry strengthening its push for 'Digital Bangladesh'. Jabbar, who founded Ananda Computers, is best known for developing the first Bangla keyboard 'Bijoy'. He heads the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services or BASIS - the trade body of IT entrepreneurs.

He was sworn in by President Abdul Hamid yesterday at the Bangabhaban. Several government sources confirmed that he will be assigned to steer the telecom and IT ministry, reports bdnews24.com. Narayon Chandra Chanda, who had been serving as the state minister for fisheries and livestock, and MP AKM Shajahan Kamal took oath as ministers. Lawmaker Kazi Keramat Ali was sworn in as a state minister at the same ceremony.

Hasina, who attended yesterday's oath-taking ceremony, had kept the telecom and IT portfolio to herself since October 2014, when she fired Abdul Latif Siddique over his controversial comments on hajj. Analysts believe Jabbar will add speed to the government's digitization efforts ahead of the upcoming national election.

He has been in the Awami League-led government's journey toward building a 'Digital Bangladesh' from the very beginning.  Jabbar sat on several government committees on ICT affairs, including the prime minister-formed  Digital Bangladesh Taskforce. He is also a member of the Bangladesh Copyright Board.

According to his company Ananda Computers, Jabbar floated the idea of a Digital Bangladesh in an article published on March 26, 2007. The next year, the Awami League included the pledge of a 'Digital Bangladesh' in its election manifesto.

Born in 1949 in Brahmanbaria, Jabbar graduated in Bangla Literature from Dhaka University. He had been active in student politics as member of the Bangladesh Chhatra League or BCL and took part in the 1971 Liberation War when he was a university student.

Jabbar started off his career as a journalist with the Daily Ganakantha, which started publishing from Dhaka in early 1972. In 1973, Jabbar was elected as the publicity secretary of the Dhaka Union of Journalists. After the Ganakantha was shut, he got involved in the businesses of travel agency, printing and publication.

Jabbar had served as the general secretary of the Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB). He started a venture involving computers and IT in 1987 and launched the Bijoy Bangla Keyboard and software on December 16 a year later.

Several of his books on ICT and computers are textbooks for primary, secondary, and higher secondary students and as well as in the undergraduate level. A founder member of the Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) and its four-time president, Jabbar has also anchored several television shows on IT. He has received several awards recognizing his role in the expansion of ICT in Bangladesh.

-AA News Desk