"I have been trying for Tk 100 crore for the last five years but I did not get it," Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan said yesterday at a workshop in Dhaka.

He was inaugurating a two-day consultative workshop on 'Establishing Rural ICT Strategy for Bangladesh' organised by Commonwealth Secretariat, a London-based international development organisation, at Brac Centre Inn.

The Commonwealth Secretariat is funding for setting up four rural ICT access centers commonly known as telecentres. Total programme outlay to assist Bangladesh ICT sector is around Tk 20 million.

Professor Arunachalam, a renowned Indian expert in the area of ICT for development and rural telecentres, is working on the project and a company from the UK is assisting him.

The project is aimed at developing an appropriate operating framework that creates an enabling environment for businesses in rural Bangladesh to effectively use ICT as a source of economic activity.

Arunachalam made a presentation on how his country built such centres in the rural areas.

Citing example of updating voter list, the minister explained had there been at least two computers in each union council office across the country, the task could have been much easier.

"If young boys and girls were engaged in this task, they could do it in less than one month," he observed, referring to the expensive budget for updating voter list.

Moyeen Khan said developing countries are facing a serious development divide but intelligent use of information and communication technology can yield digital dividends for millions of poor people in the country.

"There is development divide between the rich and the poor," he observed. "Intelligent use of ICT for the poor will lead to job growth in the country. ICT development, if implemented properly, can create digital dividends for millions of people."

In his presentation, Arunachalam highlighting the power of ICT for development said capacity of rural people should not be underestimated. "If the facilities are available, they can do a lot."

Around 70 percent of the population or 700 million people live in the rural areas in India and it is a very big power for a country for using ICT, he felt.

Speaking at the workshop, Ram Venuprasad, adviser of the Commonwealth Secretariat's special advisory services division, hoped that the project would have a positive impact on the development of a new economic activity for the country and it also has a plausible link with pro-poor growth and development in rural Bangladesh.

"There is no doubt that ICT brings tangible benefits to rural communities and businesses in those communities," he said.

Bangladesh government's initiative to implement this project is very much in line with strengthening the capacity of the least developed countries in order to respond to the challenges of globalisation, Venuprasad went on.