DHAKA: The government is to complete establishing 4,500 Union Information and Service Centres (UISC) by November to equip rural people with the information necessary for improved life and livelihood.

The Access to Information (A2I) program of the prime minister’s office informed that Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina and former Prime Minister of New Zealand and global administrator of UNDP Helen Clarke would jointly inaugurate the UISC on November 10.

Sources said UISCs are being established under local government strengthening project. Two local-level entrepreneurs will run each center, furnished with computers with Internet connection, printer, web camera and other relevant IT appliances.

Naimuzzaman Mukta, a specialist with the A2I project, told banglanews, “Selection of local entrepreneurs has already been completed and they have started taking necessary training.”

Nine thousand entrepreneurs, both male and female, have been chosen. More than two thousand have already trained and the rest seven thousand will do it within October, said Naimuzzaman.

The National Institute of Local Government (NILG) and Bangladesh Computer Council are jointly establishing the information centers.

Construction of more than one thousand centers completed in June and work on other centers would be finished within November.

“The national e-encyclopedia is under construction to launch a combined information store for these centers. Rural people will get information regarding agriculture, health, education, career, law and human rights, calamity management, small business entrepreneurship organized with audiovisuals,” Naimuzzaman Mukta told banglanews.

Though the cyber centers would be launched in November, the centers would be continuously updated and developed, Mukta said about the digitizing scheme.

BDST 1438 HRS, SEP 16, 2010