South Korean Ambassador Lee Jang-keun visited Cox’s Bazar on Sunday and observed the situation of ‘Digital Island Moheshkhali Project’ at Moheshkhali Island.
The project was implemented with the support of Korea Telecom (KT) and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) from February 2016 to March 2020. It is one of the ICT related projects supported by South Korea to realise the vision of Digital Bangladesh, the embassy said.
Aiming at providing improved access to and quality of social service such as education, health and e-commerce to Moheshkhali Island inhabitants, the project started with a tripartite MOU between the Korea Telecom (KT), Bangladesh ICT Division and International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2016 and was officially launched in April 2017 with the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Through the project high speed ICT network infrastructure using KT’s GiGA Microwave technology was installed in the island and internet platform offering services of education, health and e-commerce has been provided.
In particular, KOICA provided assistance amounting to $1 million for creating agricultural business opportunity through e-Commerce platform which helped the sustainable development of the local economy.
Ambassador Lee visited Digital Island Center, e-Commerce Center, Moheshkhali Health Complex and mobile healthcare facility and Pouroshova Agriculture Information and Communication Center (AICC) of the island and interacted with local people. According to the IOM staff and local people, the Digital Island Moheshkhali Project was a big success which brought a significant change in the lives of the island by providing various opportunities of education, health and e-commerce services through high speed internet connections in the island using KT’s Microwave transmission technology.
For example, through the e-commerce platform and related education programme established by the project, the fishery product, especially dry fish, of the island could find markets outside of the island, even export opportunities. The ICT training center and community club is providing the youth of the island with access to the internet and training opportunities.
The Moheshkhali Health Complex is now providing telemedicine and mobile ultrasound test service.
The number of service provided by the Health Complex reaches to 2,212 cases in 2020 during the COVID-19 lock-down from 217 cases in 2017.
Ambassador Lee will visit Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar and be briefed on the refugee situation by the officials of the UN agencies in the camp. He will also meet with local government officials of Bangladesh during the visit.