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ICT in Bangladesh: The time is now

T. I. M. Nurul Kabir
***A citizen-centric, multi-channel one-stop shop for government must be delivered that will ensure that the services prioritised for e-enablement are delivered in a way that is designed around user needs and achieve high levels of uptake and user satisfaction.***
ICT has been in use in Bangladesh since the 1960s, and increased with the formation of the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) in 1986. The 1997 recommendations on ICT development and the 2002 ICT policy were formulated. More rtc'eritly. an e-government cell was created in the chief advisor's unit, and completed an e-government horizon scan last December.
The inescapable conclusion is that the relative lack of progress cannot be explained by a lack of focus or political priority. Instead. I believe the explanation lies in the fact that government strategies in this area have had less impact because of weaknesses in the way they were delivered.
Weaknesses in delivery
We find that much of the strategic work by the government takes a broad and ambitious approach to the scope of ICT policy change. This makes the government to try to do everything at once. and. therefore, under-deliver.
Second, there are the unclear and uncoordinated governance structures and processes. There are many bodies involved in ICT governance, which creates confusion
about where accountability lies.
The third weakness is lack of effective cross-government program management. As ICT is a crosscutting area, it involves more than one agency for implementation. For this reason, a task-force was established under the PMO in 2000, but it did not operate effectively.
Relations between the task force and the Mhu»uy ol Science and ICT were unclear; the key staff involved in supporting the task force had other priorities which conflicted with this role; and the task force has met very infrequently.
There is no standard program management technique applied to ICT policy coordination: that is, clear assignation of responsibilities, measurable targets and delivery plans for projects, and pro-gram-wide risk management and issue escalation.
The fourth weakness has been the lack of skills and capabilities within the government.
The final weakness is implementation approach, which has been focused on government delivery rather than facilitation and enabling of private and voluntary sector solutions. The successful expansion of the mobile telephonymarket is a good example of the impact that can be achieved
when the government puts in place an enabling framework for the private sector to work within, but the government can be slow in letting the market innovate.
In 2002, the government adopted a National Policy on ICT. But the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology (MOSICT) has not been able to achieve the goals set out for e-governance in the policy.
Against that background, Spinnovation and DNet --together with an international partner, Gov3 Limited -- have been appointed to develop "a short, medium and long-term National ICT Action Plan or Roadmap for Bangladesh on the basis of the National ICT Policy 2002, that provides detailed action plans for the: (i) use of ICT in Bangladesh's development efforts, and (ii) development of Bangladesh's ICT sector."
Consequently, recommendations on the National ICT Roadmap for Bangladesh have been made to the government. There are five key work-streams in the roadmap; these are broken down into 13 mission critical projects, setting out the objective proposed for each one and a summary of how the ICT roadmap will deliver that objective. Let's take a
brief look at the five work-streams.
Empowering citizens
One of the objectives under this project is to ensure that by 2011 all Bangladeshis will have access to ICT and the skills to use them. The ICT roadmap plans to deliver this by building a national partnership to establish tele-centres, which will be achieved using a combination of different business models. Another objective is to ensure that digital contents in Bangla are easily produced and uploaded. The ICT roadmap will deliver this through a new national strategy fore-Bangla.
Finally, with the objective of ensuring that,"by 2013, all children’ will have access to ICT, the roadmap plans to see secondary schools having ICT labs with access to all the curriculum materials with proper teacher training and support.
Transforming public resources
To transform the government, we have to have e-readiness. There have to be citizen-centric e-services, and a high demand for them (through a rich mix of channels -- including mobile phones, web, kiosks and service centres). This will contribute to economic development, poverty reduction, and better and more transparent governance. Every ministry must develop and deliver plans for e-service investments.
A citizen-centric, multichannel one-stop shop for government must be delivered that will ensure that the services prioritised for e-enablement are deliv-
ered in a way that is designed around user needs and achieve high levels of uptake and user satisfaction.
One way of delivering this is through operating in an integrated way across multiple channels, using Bangladesh's high level of mobile phone penetration and the national network of telecentres being developed as a part of citizen-centric e-services.
Another important part of the work-stream is to develop a comprehensive e-government interoperability framework, to be fully adopted by all ministries and their ICT suppliers, ensuring that c-services can be mh y, /rd . IL cienlly and effet I'ively around citizens' needs and that there is no waste or duplication in the government's ICT investments.
Broadening the ICT sector The issues impeding the growth of the hardware and software sectors should be resolved to broaden the ICT sector. International ICT trade and investment campaign must be undertaken to develop a globally-recognised brand for Bangladesh as a centre for ICT investment, outsourcing and exports, which will help the Bangladesh ICT sector to increase its levels of exports, turnover and FDI by at least 50% each year between now and 2013.
Through a strong national brand and a highly effective international communications campaign developed and delivered in partnership between the government and industry, this could be a reality.
To ensure that the growth of
the ICT sector in Bangladesh is not constrained by lack of access to debt and equity financing, there has to be access to finance for the ICT sector.
Enabling the market
Legal barriers to e-commerce must be removed and the necessary business changes put in place in the public and private sectors to take advantage of the new opportunities. The ICT roadmap plans to deliver this by establishing a certified authority to oversee the provision of digital certificates enabled by the ICT Act 2006, and development of a partnership with the hank^ to establish the business and technical infrastructure needed to make e-commerce and e-government transactions a reality.
Leadership and governance
Accountability for delivering all aspects of the roadmap and associated elements must be clear to all stakeholders for successful delivery of the roadmap, and effective structures and processes must be in place. A full-time "chief digital advisor" reporting directly to the taskforce and the chief advisor, supported by a small ICT Roadmap Program Management Office, should be there to strengthen the governance.
The time has come for us to realise our true potential as a nation, and ICT will be the tool which will guide us to make our dreams a reality.
The author is an ICT specialist and the CEO of Spinnoviston Limited.