On 7th July, Post and telecommunications minister Rajiuddin Ahmed said in parliament that local laptops will be available in the market by the end of this month. Earlier government said it will be available on June. June gone, July is almost gone, but we have to wait more.
Ruling party promised to make a Digital Bangladesh during their election campaign; after taking the office they took various steps for automation using digital technology in a bid to end public sufferings in various government offices.
Local laptop project was one of the projects to make digital technology available at affordable price for ordinary people. On 26 January 2011, Telephone Shilpa Sangstha Limited (TSSL) signed agreement with two companies to assemble laptop locally. They (TSSL) are still assembling laptops. Managing director of TSSL Mohammad Ismail said they could not finish the work due to lacking in manpower. Now three local and two Malaysian experts are working there and recruitment process is going on.
There will be four models, of them Doel model will be cheapest and would cost 12,000 tk to 14,000 tk. This model will have 10.1 inch screen, Intel Atom processor N455, 1 GB DDR3 RAM and 250 GB hard disk. It was displayed in the recent Digital Innovative Fair, at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novo Theatre.