A Prime
ministers dream Vs Understanding the Present
byProf. Syed Ahsanul Alam,Chairman-Center for good
governance, University of
Chittagong
Ironical to note that the term
"Digital Bangladesh" still remains as a misunderstood concept to many. Due to
the strong desire of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina the vision has been accepted
with interest in the Government, private sector and as well as the politician.
If I have not misunderstood Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, by using the term
Digital Bangladesh ------- she emphasized on using ICT in Governance and
service delivery organs both in the public and private sector.
1. Digital Bangladesh for Coping with
globalization
The forces of globalization and
technology are continuously reshaping our economy. The impact of information
and communication technology (ICT) are giving rise to a new type of economy
---- the knowledge based economy. Technology has had a crucial role in
defining today's globalized market structure. In this context, Bangladesh
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given the first step by declaring her vision
towards "Digital Bangladesh". Despite the fact that, many still consider
this to be the dream of a Prime Minister, while others think the concept is
yet vague for consumption of our mass people, yet I believe Bangladesh can
make steady stride towards digitalization if guided by strategist capable to
formulate short time, midterm & long term planning for the digitalization
process. In the light of our previous lesson learnt the concept of "Digital
Bangladesh" must be understood clearly, practically and pragmatically in the
context of a economy like Bangladesh. It is necessary to mention that in the
short run "Digital Bangladesh" aims at E-Governance and service delivery
through utilizing ICT. But the vision "Digital Bangladesh" encompasses the
whole arena of a knowledge based Digital Economy. Bangladesh can't afford to
achieve that goal in the short and medium run. I invite thinkers, technocrats
and IT experts to focus on the short run issues and measures the present
Government should undertake to digitalize Bangladesh. It is important to start
digitalizing service delivery organs like Police, City corporation, Land
Department, Tax Department, PDB, Water supply, Gas and other authorities also
including sectors like Banking, Insurance, Customs, Tax Collection. Urgent
steps should be taken to digitalize institutions like Bangladesh Bank, NBR,
PSC, UGC, EC, ACC and other vital institution to go a step ahead towards Good
Governance.
2. Phasing out the Digitalization
Process
What is important for the planner is
the ability to explore all the possibilities of phasing out a digitalization
process for Bangladesh. We can share the experience of developing &
neighboring countries. India has made giant steps towards acquiring competence
in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The success story of the
Indian IT industry bears testimony to this. However, technical competence is a
pre requisite for digitalization of Bangladesh economy. Everybody knows
Information technology reduces costs, saves time, improves efficiency, raises
comfort levels and increases the confidence of citizens. Hence, developing
countries such as Bangladesh should leverage the power of IT to leapfrog
poverty barriers, and promote economic and social development. But we have to
keep in mind that technology (ICT) alone won't fix or alleviate economy, nor
guarantee dynamic service delivery to citizens. It is important to understand
that ICT facilities Good Governance but ICT itself don't guarantee Good
Governance.
3. Slow Paced IT revolution and the
Digital Divide
Even with the slow paced IT
revolution in Bangladesh, around 50% or more of our villages are still without
telephones. 75% or more of our population resides in the rural areas and do
not have adequate exposure to technology. A vast majority lives below the
poverty line and 35% or more are illiterate. Like any other developing country
a vast majority of Bangladesh population will be vulnerable to the risk of
getting marginalized in the IT revolution. Logically citizens will be getting
divided into people who do and people who don't have access to ICT and the
capability to use - modern information technology. This divide exists and
shall remain to exists between the cities and rural areas, between the rich
and the poor, and between the educated and uneducated.
4. Digital Bangladesh - the
misconception
Digital Bangladesh does not
necessarily mean one man one computer. For the near future neither does it
means Internet literacy for 100% population. But it indicates towards
networking with all administrative units like, Upazila, Districts and
Division. It definitely means bringing more citizens to the Information
Highway- giving a bigger mass of the population access to information. Digital
Bangladesh should be the first step towards the death of distance particularly
for the rural people with the secretariat or any other powerhouse with whom
the citizens are involved for Governance.
However we have to keep in mind the
following assumption :
i) Bringing 17 crore citizens
(approx) on the information high way will not be easy. ii) Bringing whole
public sector under a network will not be easy. iii) Bringing economic
units of private sector under a common platform will not be easy. The aim
of Digitalization in the first phase should be : i) Ensure easier
access to government forms and documents by citizens. ii) Ensure submission
of applications, forms, and complains electronically. iii) Ensure greater
access to information by citizen charter and websites. iv) Ensure
University admission process to be digitalized except the admission
test. v) Ensure greater connectivity by wireless internet.
5. Digitalization Process - Pin
Pointing Priority Sectors
Sustainable progress can be achieved,
only if we bring this vast majority of Bangladesh rural people on the
information highway, and thus, benefit from the increased productivity that
Information and communication technology offers. The anytime-anywhere and
death of- distance paradigms of technology will enable better leveraging of
scarce resources such as healthcare and education, agriculture and other
service delivery organizations.
To create ownership of digital
Bangladesh by the general public it should focus in promoting the following
broad areas:
i) Health ii) Education, ,
iii) Agriculture iv) Other Service Delivery Organization
To enhance citizens' participation
and promoting accountability , transparency and efficiency in governance
process.
i) Health In Bangladesh, 51% of
the population does not have access to essential drugs. Further, there are
only 26 physicians per 100,000 population compared to 279 for US and 162 for
China. ICT can help bring medical expertise to Upazilla and District
headquarters. Tele-medicine, for instance may link healthcare centers in
remote locations, through satellites, with super specialty hospitals at major
towns / cities. Thus it can bring connectivity between patients at remote end,
with specialist doctors, for medical consultations and treatment. For example
a few Health care center in Bangladesh uses tele-medicine to bring health-care
facilities from super specialty center abroad.
ii) Education Distance education
has tremendous potential to spread learning in any country. Elearning is a
cost-effective way of providing education at a distance. This is especially
important considering that around 80% of our illiterate population are from
the rural areas. In this context, it is essential that the government, the
industry, NGOs and academia forms partnership to accelerate the Digitalization
process. Together, they need to create an 'enabling environment' for the
proliferation of ICT in Bangladesh. There are some basic steps that Bangladesh
needs to foster online education to be offered by Open University and our
National University.
iii) Agriculture Since more than
half of our population is employed in agriculture, our planner should put ICT
to good use in agriculture. For example, India has led the use of remote
sensing satellite information for locating irrigation projects. The Internet
has been effectively used in some of the villages to ensure effective
dissemination of agricultural commodity price information. The National Dairy
Development Board (NDDB) in India has used IT effectively, to enhance
competitiveness of the dairy industry and to provide benefits to the rural
masses. Towards digital Bangladesh we can use the Indian experience of using
ICT in different sectors of the agriculture.
iv) Other Service Delivery
Organization In the public sector, ICT can be used for more efficient
governance. In a developing country like Bangladesh, there is a significant
need for introducing transparency and efficiency in government operations.
Through E-governance, the service delivery organization can effectively
deliver their service to citizens. By separating the delivery of services from
decision-making, the chances of corruption are reduced. Further, E-governance
reduces the time in interactions with the government. For instance, The
Internet can be used as a cheap communication channel that governments can use
to reach out to their citizens and vice versa. For instance, citizens can
monitor the progress of various government initiatives online. ICT also
enables effective planning. Simulation can be used as a good tool for what-if
analysis. It helps the citizens understand the parameters of public systems
(over a period of time) like pollution levels, provision of basic
infrastructure - schools, water, electricity, health care, commuting times,
etc.
6. Increased
Connectivity
An important step is to improve
connectivity. With a PC density of 2.9 per 1,000 population and a tele-density
of 32 fixed lines per 1,000 population, Bangladesh needs to increase
penetration in terms of PCs and communication lines. Connectivity options to
the rural areas can be improved, by using wireless access. In addition, Cyber
cafes in the urban centers and village information kiosks in the rural areas
will enhance the IT access throughout the country. The high cost of IT
equipment accessories which acts a barrier towards proliferation of IT
access needs to be lowered. Due to high tariff levels, the cost of
hardware and software in Bangladesh is significantly higher as compared to the
rest of the world. For instance, A PC in Bangladesh costs around 12-15 months
of average per-capita income as compared to China's 4 months and USA's 12
days. Hence, we need to reduce the tariff levels of ICT equipment and
accessories to bring even a bigger population under Internet
coverage.
7. Role of Private
Sector
Private companies and NGOs can
partner, in order to enhance awareness and utilization of ICT at the
grass-roots level. For instance, NGO's can work to bring elementary computer
literacy to the people of rural Bangladesh. They can make arrangements so that
IT professionals and educators visit rural schools and help students get
familiar with technology. In addition, Bangladesh needs an efficient
innovation system of industry, science and research centers and universities
to create new knowledge and technology. In this regard, we need an effective
higher education system that provides specialized training, education and
research.
8. The language Divide
We may consider to import simputer
without tax from India. Importation of new inventions such as the Simputer can
further reduce costs by providing affordable computing. The Simputer was
developed by scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, and a software
company called Encore. One can get computing facilities at a drastically lower
cost as simputer only cost US$150 per piece compared to US$ 400 for a PC.
Further, it has a local language interface. This is an instance of how the
scientist, academia and industry can collaborate to develop technology to suit
a particular economy. Bangladesh has a sizeable population without English
literacy. Creating and maintaining locally relevant content in bangla is a
challenge. Nevertheless, Bengali language content will make ICT more relevant
and accessible to a broader cross-section of the population. Hence, we need to
develop applications that support Bengali language. In addition, we need to
develop voice applications that will let Bangladesh rural people to
communicate with ICT tools using the spoken Bangla. In Bangladesh IT
literacy is critical to ensure that people can derive appropriate benefits
from the technology revolution. However, at a more fundamental level,
providing basic IT education is the first step towards enabling our people to
use ICT. Today, only 55% of the Bangladesh population is literate. Huge
subsidies, however, should be given to IT education and ICT literacy programs
and not in higher education. In addition, higher education must also function
in a free-market environment.
9. The Political
Commitment
Our government must take proactive
steps to take technology to rural citizens. However our dream towards digital
Bangladesh has a long way to go. Digitalization of Bangladesh will depend how
best the Government can leverage the power of ICT to increase the access to
information of its population.
Author Syed Ahsanul Alam is
a Governance analyst, Professor of Marketing at the University of
Chittagong and Chairman, Center for Good Governance. He is an
Internationally reputed Policy Strategist on Governance. His recent
administrative post includes Vice Rector( IIBT) Premier University, Director,
Sadharon Bima Corporation., Treasurer. USTC (SWC), Representative of the
President,USTC. He lectured widely at variousUniversities at home and abroad
and has numerous International publication(See Internet) in his
credit.The Author may be reached at Fax : 880-31-2550872, E-mail:professorparvez at gmail dot com, Web: www.goodgovernancebd.org
Bazlu _______________________ AHM.
Bazlur Rahman-S21BR Chief Executive Officer Bangladesh NGOs Network for
Radio and Communication(BNNRC) & Member, Strategy
Council UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN
GAID)