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COLUMN

ICT commitments of AL, BNP

HABIBULLAH N KARIM
As an ICT industry practitioner, I find it highly encouraging that the two largest political parties of the country have emphasised ICT development as a core issue. Of course, AL's manifesto mentions ICTs at 9 places while BNP's manifesto addresses ICTs in 2 places thereby making AL's manifesto more ICT-centric, to be fair.
BNP has approached ICTs as a sectoral development issue and has emphasised education and research in ICTs. It has made commitments about establishing 'ICT Cities' and 'e-Parks' as well as making telecom and internet services more widespread and affordable. These appear to conform to the usual roll call of ICT development issues though the use of the phrases like 'ICT City' and 'e-Park' in their manifesto, and it marks a departure from the more commonly used and understood ICT parlance such as 'Software Technology Park', ICT Incubator' and 'Hi-tech Park'.
The last BNP-led government can be credited with the establishment of the country's first 'ICT Incubator' in Dhaka, commissioning the SEA-ME-WE4 submarine fiber-optic cable connection to the global internet trunk and maintaining the acceleration in the growth of cellular phones. However, they did precious little to lower the cost of internet bandwidth during their last tenure. Of course their first tenure, since Bangladesh's return to democracy in 1991, was marred by great ICT blunders such as keeping Bangladesh out of the SEA-ME-WE1 consortium, raising taxes on the import of computers and a general apathy towards ICTs.
AL has approached ICTs generally as a cross-cutting issue and has mentioned ICTs as a tool for economic development, containing corruption, employment generation and most important of all, attaining social development. From that point of view, ICTs form a central theme in the AL manifesto and echo the sentiments of the ICT practitioners more closely and holistically.
The last AL government can be credited with the establishment of the 'ICT Task Force' headed by the prime minister, allocation of lands for the 'Hi-tech Park' in Kaliakoir and 'Software Technology Park' in Mahakhali, introducing world-class operators in the mobile phone market, exempting computer imports from all duties and taxes and initiating overseas software marketing activities through the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
However, AL failed to maintain the momentum and euphoria around ICTs in the last two years of their administration resulting in inconclusive results from the many bold and visionary initiatives taken earlier.
The AL manifesto is also unique In the sense that for the first time a major party manifesto has defined specific milestones
of achievements in many areas including ICTs. They have aspired to turn Bangladesh into a digital nation by the 50th anniversary of independence and have clearly identified milestones in ICT education along the way.
It's true that whichever party or parties come to rule, the administration can only ignore ICTs at their own peril in this 21st century when even wars cannot be fought
without ICTs. That's why harnessing the power and utility of ICTs cannot be an afterthought, cannot be relegated only to the techies and cannot be accomplished without a plan.
The $ 75 billion economy of Bangladesh can be doubled in size in less than a decade if we cultivate the human resource pool of the country into an ICT-skills savvy workforce. That will turn the country into a giant back-office operation of the world as well as churn out ever greater economic output on all fronts equipped with the wings of productivity afforded by the ICTs.
The software and IT services industry would very much like to see the next government swiftly implement the 250 acre Kaliakoir Hi-tech Park and the 47 acre Mahakhali Software Technology Park that will bring in hundreds of million dollars worth of foreign and local investment in ICTs as well as other advanced technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology and robotics.
The software industry would like to see at least 10 other ICT Incubators being set up in quick succession in all divisional headquarters including the capital city. The only ICT Incubator in Karwan Bazar in Dhaka has been a huge success bringing in investments of nearly Tk 40 crore and generating employment for around 800 ICT professionals.
The e-Govt program must be given highest priority and appropriate budgetary allocation so that the large majority of essential citizen services are made available without harassment and at minimum cost within the first 2 years of the next government.
On the whole, the next government must make it clear from the get go that they are fully serious and wholly committed to the transformational change that adoption of ICTs will entail in bringing about a corruption-free, citizen-centric and forwardlooking administration. Only then can we dream of becoming a knowledge-based society' that will fully harness the human potential of our large population and deliver us from the evils of poverty; inequity and injustice the great ideals behind our war of independence.
The wnter is the founder CEO of Technohaven Company Ltd and is the current president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) He welcomes feedback at hnkanm@gmail com