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Bangladesh's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Ministry of Water Resources have adopted a locally developed virtual meeting platform, Convay, for their national training programme on climate finance-marking a significant shift towards homegrown digital solutions.
The programme, titled Introduction to Financial Analysis and Investment Instruments for Climate Finance, that began recently is being conducted entirely on Convay's online platform, demonstrating the government's confidence in domestic innovation for delivering critical capacity-building initiatives.
This government-endorsed training initiative is being delivered in three phases, with the first two phases conducted completely online via Convay.
The programme features a total of 33 sessions-11 assessment-based and 22 in-depth-and is designed to engage 1,000 participants from both domestic and international institutions.
Users have joined seamlessly through desktop, iPhone, and Android devices, with many noting that no other international platform-Zoom included-has previously offered such a smooth and large-scale virtual training experience.
Convay also served as the technology backbone for a high-profile hybrid conference held at the Planning Commission in Dhaka, where more than 500 participants from around the world joined virtually using its 'Big Meeting' feature.
The event was attended by senior representatives from the embassies of the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden, as well as delegates and experts from UNDP, the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), V20, IIX, FCBO, and GA Capital.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, advisor to the ministries of environment, forest, climate change and water resources, was also present at the event.
According to the ministries, the organisers were deeply impressed by the seamless execution of such a large-scale international conference on a domestic platform, noting that no technical disruptions occurred during the session-a rare feat even for leading global platforms.
Convay, developed by Synesis IT and powered by engineers from top institutions including BUET, is more than just a video conferencing tool.
It is a fully integrated, secure and scalable office collaboration solution. Its features include high-capacity virtual meetings (supporting up to 5,000 participants, with plans to expand to 10,000), video hosting and moderation, team and group management, integrated chat and task tools, cloud storage, screen sharing, a digital whiteboard, AI-powered transcription and meeting minutes, multilingual support, speaker identification (in both Bangla and English), and low-bandwidth optimisation.
Notably, Convay ensures data residency and sovereignty, and offers advanced security features, AI analytics, and options for cloud or on-premise hosting-making it a robust solution for government and enterprise use.
The platform previously made headlines when the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium Africa (SIDSSA) 2025-a G20 Summit-level event-was hosted on Convay, led by South African President H.E. Cyril Ramaphosa. That meeting brought together policymakers, diplomats, and private sector leaders from 27 countries, placing Convay ahead of global names like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams for the event.
"Convay is an example of what Bangladesh can achieve in the tech arena," said ASM Nurun Nabi, chief business officer of Synesis IT. "We are grateful for the trust placed in our homegrown platform at such high-level national and international events. This trust fuels our ambition to develop truly global products from Bangladesh."
Technology experts have echoed this sentiment, observing that only a selected few global platforms can handle virtual meetings with more than 500 participants without technical issues. Convay has now firmly secured its place among them, proving that local innovation can meet-and exceed-international standards.
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