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Digital Bangladesh: Going beyond the rhetoric

Mridul Chowdhury
IN the lead up to the 2008 election. Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia seemed to be on a race to promise a Digital Bangladesh to the citizens. Khaleda went on to promise the "delivery of a Digital Bangladesh" much before 2021. the AL-proposed date, as if the concept is something tangible like a bridge or a highway! All this war of words indicates two things:
•, Even if those leaders do not really know what they mean by Digital Bangladesh, it is a positive sign that they are thinking that this term associates them with modernity and progressive-thinking;
• There is a growing public demand from at least the educated section of the society to see their government place more strategic emphasis on tire use of information technologies (TD for nationaldevelopment.
Even after the election, the AL government has continued their rhetoric about Digital
Bangladesh, albeit never clarifying what it is that they really mean. What is die threshold beyond which a country can be dubbed "digital"? What exactly is AL aiming to achieve by 2021? Granted that these are not easy answers, we, the citizens, can surely demand to get an intelligible clarification of their use of the term, and also demand to know what the /\L plans to achieve in the next 5 years to realize their2021 vision.
This piece outlines some thoughts on the concept of Digital Bangladesh and some pertinent policy issues.
Why Digital Bangladesh?
Before getting into specific issues concerning Digital Bangladesh, it is important to review tire basic premises. We have difficult challenges in every sphere of our economic and social lives, and use of technologies will not necessarily make them go away. Technology is not a silver bullet; it is useful in some areas, mandatory in some and
overkill in some others. The purpose of Digital Bangladesh policy-making should be to make clear distinctions between those three areas, and sometimes make hard choices if needed. The questions surrounding Digital Bangladesh are real and often politically sensitive. Should the government implement a mid-day meal program to attract students or pay for a computer in a school (a Tk. 20,000 computer can feed 15 students for a year!)? Should the government build a new bridge or computerise the Roads and Highways Department?
When resources are severely limited, these are valid and difficult questions. But these should be answered in the context of a rapidly changing world. Over the course of the last few centuries, the world has shifted from agricultural to industrial based societies, where efficiency in manufacturing has determined global economic influence. Over tire last few decades, the world has been shifting from industrial to knowledge-based
societies, where proficiency in creating and disseminating knowledge has been an increasingly predominant factor for national growth.
The phenomenon is well reflected through the shift in national goals ofMalaysia, a country widelyperceived to be on the forefront oftransi -tion countries. In 1991, the then leader Mahathir Mohamed declared tliat Malaysia would become a fully industrialised country by 2020. However, over the next decade, the national Vision 2020 was updated to reflect Malaysia's aim to become a "knowledge sod ety" rather than a fully industrialised nation.
For the full version of this article please read this month's Forum, available free with The Daily Star on Monday, February 2.
Mridui Chowdhury is a co-founder of Jagoree, CEO of ClickDiagnostics, a socially responsible global tele-health company and former e-Governance Consultant to the Ministry of Planning.