Khan Ferdousour Rahman

The golden jubilee of the independence of Bangladesh would be observed in 2021. The country has already fixed its target of achieving 'Digital Bangladesh' by that time. It is a timely expectation for proper positioning the country among other hi-tech countries globally. A country goes digital means it will be an e-state means all its activities of governance, commerce, education, agriculture etc., will be powered by computer and internet. Today information communication technology (ICT) drives the technological and economic advancement of the developed as well as emerging economies. The goal of establishing such digital country would bring success in the ICT sector, which cannot be ignored in this 21st century. Heading towards that target will link every device such as cell phone, internet, computer, e-learning, e-governance etc.

Both the ruling and opposition parties in Bangladesh, i.e. Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) emphasized ICT development as a core issue. With the landslide victory of AL in the recent general election of December 29, 2008, the making of an ICT-driven society in Bangladesh is now a real possibility. The election manifesto of AL pledged with ICT commitment that cuts across the whole range of social, economic and governance development issues. The AL assured to build a 'Digital Bangladesh' where people will get a developed life, free from crime, corruption, misrule and face the challenges of the 21st century. The main opposition, BNP also mentioned a number of times that they started the programme in their tenure and would complete it earlier than 2021. Therefore, the destination for the new generation is correctly pointed out towards a 'Digital Bangladesh' and there is no disagreement on the issue among the parties.

Today the entire world is gradually becoming a Digital Planet. Almost every state is heading towards a knowledge-based society and Bangladesh cannot stay away from the advantages out of it. Though it is very easy to speak about such a dream, i.e. making a country digital, but at the same time it is very difficult to implement it. For implementation, it is basically the government who will take initiatives while the other political parties also need to play important role.

For more than decades we are in the user level of computer, but we failed to develop better ICT infrastructure and not able to provide digital devices to the common people. A very first step for 'Digital Bangladesh' would be to spread the ICT education throughout the country. Internet facilities should be made available to the remotest corner of the country at a cheaper rate. The speed of the internet must be made maximum to get the benefit of the time. Boosting up the ICT industry deserves huge investment as well as care by right ICT policy. A comprehensive plan and effort through a holistic approach needs to be made. Market needs to be broadened both in and outside the country for software, outsourcing and programming. Hardware plant needs to be established in the country.

Bangladesh as a country with 150 million population has huge potential, despite having many problems. It is very important to create skilled manpower educated in science and technology. Currently, the people of Bangladesh remain far away from using ICT, when the whole world is getting developed with the blessings of ICT. The people of the country face this discrimination only because of economic insolvency. Due to poverty and illiteracy, use of ICT is beyond imagination and some of them consider it nothing but mere a fashion. Despite having a lot of interest, most of the population remain out of the access of ICT because of high price. In the era of globalization, ICT is a cross-cutting issue as well as an essential tool for economic development. It can play an important role in creating employment, raising work skills and production. It can contain corruption and attain social development. The adoption of ICT can bring corruption-free, citizen-centric and forward-looking governance in the country. The life and livelihood of a large number of population, especially those living in rural areas, cannot be developed without utilizing the ICT scope for them.

Though late, but Bangladesh is already connected with SEA-ME-WE4 submarine fiber-optic cable connection. The government needs to adopt a viable ICT policy and set up a state of the art Hi-Tech Park with a view to flourishing the ICT sector. At present, the ICT sector falls under three separate ministries, namely post and telecommunication, science and technology and information. For obvious reasons, there is a need for bringing the ICT sector under a single umbrella to ease policy formulation and realize the potential. A holistic approach needs to be taken by all the stakeholders to reach the ICT facilities to the doorstep of the common people. It is the time to take initiative to hand over a computer to every child of the country. The broadband internet charge needs to be reduced at minimum level.

Therefore, it is the expectation of the mass people that the government will take all possible steps to create a SMART (simple, measurable, accountable, responsive and transparent) 'Digital Bangladesh' and establish a knowledge-based society within 50 years of her independence in 2021.

















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The honeymoon period for the newly installed Government led by Awami League is yet to over. The landslide victory of Awami League in the last election has given the new government of Sheikh Hasina an enormous task of meeting people’s aspirations. Different analyses of the electoral results have revealed that the young generation who consist of more than one third of the voters had indeed brought this overwhelming victory for AL. With many other reasons, implicitly it can be inferred that voters of this generation while exercising their franchise considered party manifestos seriously. Presumably the visionary approach of AL’s manifesto, entitled ‘a charter for change’ might have allured the young voters much, especially its ‘Vision 2021′ which envisions a ‘digital Bangladesh’.

Let us now explore the buzzword digital Bangladesh. What does it really mean? Moving towards digital Bangladesh does not imply that the urban young groups of the country will be more sophisticated consumers of high-tech devices like computers, digital cameras, latest model mobile sets or camcorders etc. based on high-speed Internet infrastructure and promote the dejuice culture. Rather discarding this superficial notion, we need to consider the term ‘digital Bangladesh’ objectively.

Broadly speaking, a digital society ensures an ICT driven knowledge-based society where information will be readily available on line and where all possible tasks of the government, semi-government and also private spheres will be processed using the state of the art technology. So, a digital Bangladesh must guarantee efficient and effective use of modern ICT in all spheres of the society with a view to establishing good governance. In other word, making Bangladesh a digital one, we have to establish technology driven e-governance, e-commerce, e-production, e-agriculture, e-health etc. in the society emphasizing the overall development of the common people, the major stakeholders of the country.

Due to globalization, more specifically due to booming of ICT like most of the countries on the globe, Bangladesh has already been connected with the outside world. Yet in the field of ICT, our only grand success lies in Mobile telecommunication which has brought an abrupt change in telecommunication scenario of the country. However, in the other spheres of ICT, our achievement is very insignificant and we are still far away from transforming ourselves into a knowledge-based society.

Building strong ICT infrastructure is the pre-requisite for making Bangladesh a digital one. For this, we need to focus on the following relevant issues assessing the harsh reality that hinders our development in this context.

a) Power deficit: Latest statistics reveal that Bangladesh faces a power deficit of up to 2000 MW against a demand of 5000 MW daily. It may be noted that for proper ICT development an uninterrupted power supply is a must.

b) Network infrastructure: Outside Dhaka, at present a few computer network infrastructures have been developed so far. Apart from some educational institutes outside Dhaka, observation finds that most of the LAN setups are Dhaka centric. This observation reveals the reality of the digital gap even within the country.

c) Use of Internet: For the ICT development Internet users of the country must be increased. In this case our position is the worst one among the South Asian countries. The latest statistics (ITU, 2007) revealed that Internet penetration in our country is only 0.3%. Whereas, in Pakistan and India, it is 7.3% and 5.3% respectively.

d) Under sea submarine cable: Since 2006, Bangladesh has been connected to worldwide Internet Super High Way through an under sea submarine cable. But this single submarine cable frequently faces disruption resulting in slow bandwidth.

e) Network Readiness: Networked Readiness Index (NRI), developed by the University of Harvard, measures the propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by information and communications technology. The NRI seeks to better comprehend the impact of ICT on the competitiveness of nations. The NRI is a composite of three components: the environment for ICT offered by a given country or community, the readiness of the community’s key stakeholders (individuals, businesses, and governments) to use ICT, and finally the usage of ICT amongst these stakeholders. Unfortunately, the latest survey (2006-7) revealed that Bangladesh’s NRI ranking is one of the lowest among the Asian countries.

f) Use of open source software: Many countries (e.g. France and Malaysia) have started to use open source software in ICT development projects for cost effectiveness. Unfortunately, in our ICT development domain the culture of using open source has not yet been introduced.

g) English literacy rate: From different sources, it has been learnt that, English literacy rate in Bangladesh is less than one percent. Whereas, English literacy rates in India and Pakistan are 60% and 20% respectively. There is a strong correlation between English literacy and ICT development in the present context of globalization. In the arena of ICT English has become the Lingua-Franca. On the other hand, we have not localized Bengali in the domain of computing. Hence, English literacy is a must for our ICT development. Unfortunately, in this case our position is the worst in the sub-continent.

Though the above accounts seem to be frustrating one, these can be easily overcome within a reasonable span of time if we can establish good governance in the country. Since independence, Bangladesh has been critically suffering from poor governance. Lack of vision, corruption, lack of transparency, weak coordination, undemocratic decision making were the salient features of our past governments. These can also be marked as the major barrier to the overall progress of Bangladesh. However, the newly installed government which has called for changes, hopefully, will establish much expected good governance to keep up with people’s aspiration.

For making a digital Bangladesh by 2021, the government must address the above stated issues effectively and efficiently in transparent manners. In many cases we need to reformulate our national policy (e.g. education policy, ICT policy) in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals. In reformulating the ICT policy, we will need to take a pragmatic and visionary approach so that it can curb the prevailing digital gap in the society. Moreover, the journey towards a digital Bangladesh needs the incorporation of the technologically solvent innovative younger generation. If the leaders of our country objectively guide this generation, they can do wonder for the nation. After all, the young generation always looks forward and they can help bring about positive changes in the society




Meaning of DB;
THE scope of Digital Bangladesh (DB) is not yet clear. We assume that the government wants to make Bangladesh fully digitised by 2021 through application of third generation information and communication technology (ICT).
Digitisation helps increase operational efficiency and productivity provided the supporting infrastructures work properly. This is a tool that will help accelerate economic development and increase competitive edges of Bangladesh in the world market.
Wide-scale digitisation is likely to help Bangladesh become a mid-income country sooner than otherwise possible. However, for proper management the government needs to define its vision, mission and goals and formulate strategies and prepare action plans supported by necessary financial and human resources so that the plans can be implemented.
It is assumed that by 2021 Bangladesh will have a countrywide ICT network that will operate to ensure high speed information flow between the decision- centers wherefrom instructions will be transmitted electronically to the action centres to make the intended actions happen.
The goal is to accelerate a national decision-making process and to implementat the decisions, monitor the performance of the government functionaries at all levels starting from the national parliament through the ministries, administrative offices at districts, upazilas and down to the schools at village levels; evaluate the results at each level and if necessary correct the behaviour of the non-performers.
The scope of DB is very wide. It is not only e-governance or e-commerce or e-banking, or operating a country-wide mobile phone network through which one can access the daily newspapers or other internet devices.
In fact, it is a combination of all of them. It is a country-wide application of 3G ICT to institutionalise the best management practices in every sector and sub-sector. To make DB happen, highest priority must be given to science, technology and management education. Besides, to be productive, the educated people must be in good health. This means digitisation should start simultaneously with the education and health sectors.
Education sector
The universities of Bangladesh are already partly digitised. DB visualises that by 2021 all universities, colleges, high schools, primary schools, and madrasahs will have computerised connectivity. ICT is intended to be used as teaching-learning aids. After five years of schooling all students should have regular access to computers with internet facilities. The goal is to improve the quality of education. The use of automated library is spreading slowly in most universities, although they have to go a long way to be digital in the real sense. By 2021 the entire education sector should be digitised with third generation wireless technology.
Health sector
Under the Ministry of Health there are medical universities, colleges and hospitals in big cities. In addition, there are a large number of rural hospitals/clinics/healthcare service centres at district, upazila, and thana levels. However, most of these hospitals and clinics are not well equipped and their services are not of desirable quality. The number of qualified doctors and nurses is much less than required. Nor do they have required type of diagnostic equipment and operating theatres. Reportedly, the available facilities and medicines are often misused.
In Digital Bangladesh all these clinics will be linked through the computer-aided connectivity. Major hospitals should even have their websites linked with the websites of the DG, Health Directorate. But it must be noted that merely establishing connectivity will not solve the problems of inadequacy of the number of doctors, nurses, equipment, medicines, etc.
What the digitisation can do is to seek, receive, analyse the medical reports and transmit back prescriptions/instructions, monitor the performances at the rural clinics electronically.
In other words, decisions can be implemented very quickly. This will ease out management problems. Because the entire information and data set will flow back and forth electronically they will be relatively more transparent and in turn the probability of indulgence in corruption will decrease. Beside, by 2021, the DB will hopefully introduce video conference systems between doctors in major clinics.
Managerial talent
To digitise Bangladesh with 3G technology in 12 years is fairly ambitious. However, there is no reason to feel skeptical. It needs strong commitment and strategic planning for sustainable DB. The beginning must concentrate on the development of infrastructure in terms of hardware, software and manpower. Merely buying several lakh computers and distributing them among several thousand workstations located in colleges, schools, hospitals and clinics will not digitise Bangladesh. Locally produced qualified manpower must be available to keep the system running without depending on foreign "experts." The project presupposes that Bangladesh will be able to build its technical and managerial capacity to design the necessary digital network system, procure and install all the equipment properly, and to educate, train and deploy necessary personnel to operate and maintain the nationwide ICT network.
Sustainability of DB will depend on our ability to maintain, repair and expand once the system is installed. To install the system at the beginning we may seek foreign help, but to keep the system running we must not depend on external help. We must develop our own manpower.
To produce such human resources, the government must assign highest priority to the promotion of science, technology and management education. We must prepare a separate plan to produce adequate number of scientists, computer and communication engineers, software engineers, technology management experts, etc.
Otherwise DB will make Bangladesh highly vulnerable by making Bangladesh dependent on those countries that manufacture, control and distribute ICT. Sustainability is more important than starting. If we fail to manage a sustainable digitised Bangladesh with our own resources, Digital Bangladesh 2021 will harm rather than benefit the country.
Dr. Hafiz Siddiqi is Vice Chancellor, North South University.