Arafat Hasan of DOT
The Access to Information (a2i) Program of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has won nine international awards in different categories as well as a national award this year for various digital innovations.
This has led to Bangladesh winning the “World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Prize-2018” in the ICT sector for the fifth time in a row.
According to BSS, the a2i program won the award for ‘Muktopaath’ (www.muktopaath.gov.bd) – a tool in educating and training youths, women, professionals and overseas workers. Using the platform, anyone can reportedly avail general, technical, vocational and life oriented education.
Additionally, a2i and Bangladesh Police were awarded another WSIS Prize jointly for “Online Police Clearance Certificate Management System” which was built with assistance from the a2i service innovation fund and implemented by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
The then project director of the a2i Program Kabir Bin Anwar, now secretary of the Water Resources Ministry, received the award for Muktopaath while Deputy Inspector General of Police Harun Ur Rashid and Additional DIG (ICT) Md Ruhul Amin received the award for “Online Police Clearance Certificate Management System” on March 20, 2018 at a function held at the headquarters of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland.
According to officials, Muktopaath was also bestowed with the PIB-Sohel Samad Memorial Award-2018. A2i’s Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury received the award on September 5, 2018 at a function held at the seminar room of PIB in the city.