Google Bus Bangladesh has formally launched its journey in the country to encourage the students at college and university level to get involved in internet use to maximize the benefit of ICT in their lifves.

Country manager of South and Southeast Asia of Google James McCulre was present in the inaugural function of the project at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital’s Sher-e-Banglanagar, reports BSS.

State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak addressed the function as the chief guest.

Senior officials of ICT Division, IT experts, representatives of government and nongovernment organizations, among others, were present on the occasion.

Google, an American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products, has launched the Google Bus Bangladesh project to bring the power of internet to half a million college and university students, McCulre said.

James also said Bangladesh is a country on the move with an immense pool of youthful citizens to help it progress and prosper.

"Equipped with the right training, we think this young, energetic and highly motivated section of society would be able to maximize the endless possibilities of the internet," he added.

Palak said Bangladesh already is enjoying the advantage of demographic dividend and it has huge potentiality to get benefit from demographic dividend as youths make up significant number of the total population.

"We are implementing a number of ICT-based programnmes to educate youngsters in both urban and rural areas to maximize the benefit of ICT to gain economic prosperity of the country," he added.

Appreciating the initiative of Google, Palak said the launching of Google Bus Bangladesh project will tremendously help students to motivate them to acquire knowledge through using internet.

The project sources said Google aims to empower Bangladeshi undergraduates with the tools to star, improve and grow their own business and projects by visiting 500 campuses in 35 locations across Bangladesh.

During the yearlong visit, students will be trained on internet use by arranging workshops, they added.

The Google Bus itself has been retrofitted with stowaway seats, 3G internet connectivity and an array of monitors and sound system where training audio-video material can be caste to all the screens.

The Google Bus Bangladesh project is already underway in Dhaka where several campus workshops have taken place.

Over the next months, it will make its way to academic institutions in and around Chittagong, Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barisal and other major cities.