The Digital Bangladesh

Road to Digital Bangladesh. Photo: Blackglass

AROUND March 4, someone posted on Youtube a thirty to forty minute clip from a meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and army officials. It showed the confrontation between angry army officials and the PM on her decision to negotiate with the mutineers rather than take military action.

Within hours, the clip had spread to the four corners of the world. Facebook users put the Youtube link in their status, bloggers wrote about the video, related articles were dug up, and TV stations around the world discussed the meeting and its implications on the newly elected PM and the army. (All of these applications are considered a part of Web 2.0, where Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web).

Taken by surprise by the intense media attention, the government blocked Youtube altogether on March 6, hoping that it would blow over.

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Last tow years I am trying hard to solve this problem in Digital way. I’m working hard and will dedicate my life. I have talk with so many young man and it is above 9000. I try to help as much as I can. Some times I am don and some section I cant. I have learnt from my past and this time all our good and bad experience come together and hope this site will bring the green to our youth.

 

 

My dedication will be to make people earn from online. No complex mind or no complex method will be provide. I will provide my logic and experience such a way that will be easier for a person to earn from online.

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By Shahidul K K Shuvra, The Independent Editor of IT and Science pages, Cell- 01715245459, http://www.theindependent-bd.com

After BCSICTWorld 2008 the National award winner IT organisation Bangladesh Computer Samity, BCS, is going to host BCS Digital Expo2009 on 25 to 28 March at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre, BCFCC. The organisers of the Digital Expo2009 promised to present the country a non-traditional IT fair because it wants to show models and replications of digital life and IT strategy at the exposition. According to a press conference arranged by BCS the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is supposed to inaugurate the IT exposition.

Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) in cooperation with ICT Business Promotion Council and the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology will facilitate the four-day long event. More than 50 stalls across the 15 pavilions will enlighten the citizens of the country on being citizens of the Digital Bangladesh. Every type of IT usage such as Information and Communication Technology for Development, software development, outsourcing, businesses offshore, internet services etc will be highlighted to promote more IT businesses as well as awareness. It is a noticeable approach by BCS, which is trying to come out from its image as a computer vendor dominated IT body.

The slogan Digital Bangladesh started getting popularity from the last BCSICTWorld 2008 and then the slogan was picked up by Awami League in its election manifesto. One of the election pledges of the Awami League led grand alliance was to build a Digital Bangladesh by 2021, which is still in a public discussion. Feedback from IT experts and organisations is needed to design a roadmap for making the country digital based. Unconventional IT fairs like demonstrating models of digital life, countries, strategic supports, info-tech policy affairs etc can show a way to the politicians and public to make the country a positive Digital Bangladesh. The theme 'Towards a digital Bangladesh ' has been selected to demonstrate the exact picture of what is Digital Bangladesh to remove public ignorance and prejudice regarding ICT adaptation.

BCS has been regularly facilitating ICT expositions in the names of BCS Computer Show and BCS ITExpo from 1993. Now BCS is not only speak on computer and it may be wrong to think that BCS only run by hardware vendors. It is the oldest and biggest promoter of ICT sector. Its IT fairs taught us arranging fairs with the tools and services of info-tech can entertain commoners by the essence of education.

ICT industry has been branded some years ago as a thrust sector in the country. Many hi-tech experts think that like garment industry the sector can earn much from the international software market. e-Governance is a must for ensuring better services as well as for creating transparency at the all levels of the government. Adapting e-governance can boost the local software industry and reduce the dependence on expensive foreign software.

It is well-know that the country started using computer since 60s while many developing nations could not even imagine on the emerging power of info-tech. But compare to the neighbouring countries the nation came in the race of info-tech very lately. Businessmen still have a lack of confidence in investing for the sector as well as being sluggish in taking bold steps with a wide vision. Many opportunities for software, hardware and computer re-exporting are slipping out of our hands.

BCS is the apex IT trade body that is also laying focus on digital awareness programmes. From early 90s its digital exposition is pushing the nation towards the cyber society with calling rendezvous for IT lovers and budding e-generations that always get focused in the fairs.

We are lagging behind for lack of hardware plant and even our computer assembling job is going on without proper guidance. We can expect initiative from the new government on inviting big hardware giants like Dell, Acer, IBM etc to start manufacturing here. Our computer experts also have knowledge to develop supporting component to improve quality of a device. So government initiative with a long vision is needed and in addition developing countries like us can jointly invest and develop a project for building a hardware plant in a selected place. We should not forget that here we have a big market and to some extent we can be dependent on own products.

IT Fairs like Digital Expo2009 organised by BCS or even with the initiatives of others is strengthening up the awareness layer of digital life. For more than decades we are in the user level of computer and awareness is on the rise. It should be underlined that this awareness is nothing if we fail to develop better ICT infrastructure and cannot provide digital devices to the commoners. From this Digital Expo2009 we must be more action oriented in boosting up the ICT industry, which deserves huge investment and care by right IT policy.

Along with three-roundtable discussions on digital life style several seminars will sensitise the policymakers as well as citizen will be familiar with the exact definition of the Digital Bangladesh. The fair will remain open from 10am to 8pm daily for all people and BCS offers 50 per cent discount on online ticket.

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It is a familiar cycle in democracies: as post-election euphoria fades and a new government faces a myriad of problems, ambitious projects whose announcement injected some life into the campaign start to lose their sheen.

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Digital Bangladesh

By Zahid Al Amin

After the agricultural and industrial revolution, the new millennium has been celebrating another revolution which entirely different kind is taking place across the globe. It is nothing but Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The wave of the revaluation has also touched the developing countries like Bangladesh with massive changes.

The Awami League led ruling government had pledged to turn the country as a Digital Bangladesh during there election campaign in last year. ICT is the main tool of the government to fulfill their commitment of changing the old days and bringing new in that place. They have lots of opportunities to do in this field.

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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.

Md. Anwarul Kabir is a freelance writer and he can be reached at kabiranwar@yahoo.com

Ref: mukto-mona.com

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