Bangladesh: Decision to preserve government data at Kaliakair Mega Data Center

The government has decided to store the data of all government ministries and departments in a mega data center at Kaliakair in Gazipur instead of keeping it on a separate server. The Cabinet has tentatively approved the revised draft of Memorandum of Association and Article of Association of Bangladesh Data Center Company Limited, keeping the opportunity to store personal data in this data center as well. The policy was approved at a virtual cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday (December 6th). From the edge of Ganobhaban, the Prime Minister and Ministers from the Cabinet Division of the Secretariat joined the meeting via video conference.

After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Khandaker Anwarul Islam gave this information in a press briefing. The cabinet secretary said that every ministry and department has a server, from now on no one will be able to do the server. Everyone's data has to be stored under the company in this Kaliakair data center. Because there will be all the safety and security. No government data can be stored locally. It will be a big job. One of the advantages of this is that it has a backup in Jessore. If for any reason there is a disaster in Kaliakair, all the data can be recovered from the backup center in Jessore. Everyone's data was instructed to have a data center in Kaliakair, but it was not fully complied with. Recently, we have seen some big data management problems. But since it is a mega center, from now on all government data has to be kept. Up to 300 terabytes of data can be stored there. Up to 8 terabytes have been done so far.

The cabinet secretary said a large European IT expert had visited. There is no such big data center in Europe. We will also store our data here. Private or individual level data can also be stored there. People in the private sector will be able to save data on-payment. They will no longer need to server themselves. The owner of the data center who will save the data in this data center will not be able to enter, understand or do anything. Only those who store will have their entry in the data center.

Regarding data security, the Cabinet Secretary further said that if you set up a data center in your home or organization, you will have to bring a vendor. That vendor will enter the data center, enter your store, you have to give him free entry while working. That is why their safety is not good.We have been handling these for several months now, asking for money from many places. One hundred crore rupees is being demanded.

He said all the data available in Bangladesh has been proposed to be launched at the Mega Data Center at Kaliakair under the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Department. Everyone's data should be kept here, even foreigners can keep it. But for that, the first one is giving an operating fund. From then on, the government will not pay. They will maintain it with the money they get from storing data and will make extensions in the future. But for this you have to do Bangladesh Data Center Company, you need an article of association.

He said that when it was coming in February-March, there were some objections from the finance ministry at that time. Since Bangladesh is giving the money, the owner of the company cannot be the computer council, it can be the government.

The cabinet secretary said that in the beginning, the operating fund was less than Rs 10 crore. It was made 50 crore rupees. There were some legal objections about these, I made them workable from finance. Now it has been brought.