Asia’s mega technology event, eAsia 2011, ended saturday amid huge enthusiasm among visitors. Companies showcased how information and communications technologies (ICT) helped people get better services with ease at the event held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
Public and private organisations at the mega exposition showed their preparations in entering a digital era through automation and web-based services.
Around 150 exhibitors participated at the three-day event.
Exhibitors displayed a wide range of services, such as mobile banking, e-health care, e-Agri service, e-education and e-Governance that they are offering to people through the use of ICT.
bKash, a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, explained its mobile banking service to the visitors. They offered free registration for visitors at the event so that they can easily enjoy the mobile financial service.
Under this service, mobile phones are used as bank accounts and serves as a wallet to transact money.
Grameen Communications displayed services on how e-health care can be provided to the rural population through the use of a health checkup booth.
Kyushu University, Japan, and Global Communication Centre, Bangladesh, jointly developed the health checkup booth to collect, monitor and analyse the healthcare status in remote areas of Bangladesh.
This booth uses nine diagnostic tools such as height, hearing capacity, blood pressure, weight, urinary sugar level, ECG, body temperature, blood sugar level and eyesight to measure personal and family health records.
Amadeyr Cloud Ltd, a private organisation that uses technology to provide an access to information to semi-literate and illiterate persons, showcased how farmers receive benefits from the use of ICT.
The company recently completed a pilot project titled ‘Digits to All’ in Gazipur to show people how they could use IT to get services relating to heath, education and agriculture.
Under the pilot project, the company offered tablet phones to people, free of cost, to get information on agriculture, health and education. Most applications on the tablet are in audio and visual forms and in the local language.
Rahimafrooz displayed its online learning tools on e-learning, multimedia content, e-books and e-reference materials for workforce training and development. The company also displayed its innovative ‘DigiClass’ multimedia teaching solution for students in kindergarten to grade 12.
Government agencies also displayed their web-based products and services at the event. Bangladesh Post Office yesterday displayed its new postal cash card to the visitors. The postal cash card is a kind of debit card. The customers can open a card at Tk 45 to remit money easily and quickly across the country.
Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training yesterday explained the importance of their smart card to get oversee jobs.
The card contains all information present in a passport, a jobseeker’s fingerprints and the name and licence number of the recruiting agency.
The Election Commission also promoted the use of electronic voting machines at the event. It also offered visitors an option to check the authenticity of their national ID cards.
The event was jointly organised by Bangladesh Computer Council and ICT division of the science and ICT ministry along with India’s Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies. Access to Information Programme was a co-organiser.
-With The Daily Star input
