1

Digital Bangladesh
ARE WE
READY ?
A Presentation by Group - 4

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

Shakerul Islam Ruposh Group Leader & Presenter of Recommendation

Khandakar Asef Erfan : Presenter of Introduction to the topic
Abrar Tahsin : Elaborator of the topic
Sabbay : Interpreter of the topic
Tonmoy Saha : A Conlusion of the topic

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

Names of Presenters :

Digital Bangladesh :
Are We Ready ?

Introduction to the
development perspective
and approach.
Presented by Khandakar
Asef Erfan

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

4
Digital Bangladesh :
Digital Bangladesh is an integral part of the governments Vision 2021which promises a
prosperous and equitable middle-income Bangladesh by its golden jubilee of independence. The
Digital Bangladesh vision, arguably, runs parallel to the Information Society vision advocated by
the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).
Our Honorable Prime Minister outlined the Digital Bangladesh having four key priorities :
1.

Developing human resources ready for the 21st century.

2.

Connecting citizens in ways most meaningful to them.

3.

Taking services to citizens doorsteps.

4.

Making the private sector and market more productive and competitive through the use of
digital technology.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready ?

Our current state

Bangladesh has made good progress in major economic and social arena, particularly since the
restoration of democracy, despite several challenges at home and externally including the adverse
impact of global financial meltdown and recession, energy price hikes and the adverse impacts of
climate change. Next Table shows that Bangladesh still has a long journey, replete with significant
challenges, to navigate. A number of social indicators are weak, such as TFR, maternal mortality,
CPR, child nutrition, state of persons with disability and autism and the indigenous people.
Experience in recent times, however, points to the prospect of much faster progress, provided the
areas of demonstrated success are further developed and those of the persistent weaknesses are
vigorously redressed. Increased globalization of markets and capital movement, unprecedented
knowledge creation and technological advancement have opened new vistas for rapid
economic growth around the world, including Bangladesh. The country can achieve its
development goals by a strong political will forging national consensus on major policy issues which
will ensure a congenial environment for development and for effective utilization of its most
valuable assets, a pool of hard working, capable, and dexterous people.
Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

Items

Banglades
h

LMI countries

UMI countries

600*

1,000

3,700

Unemployment rate (%)

26

Poverty level

40

12

13

Income Distribution (Gini

coefficient)

0.46

0.27

0.32

Investment GDP ratio (%)

24

35

40

338

513

2,800

Industrialization
Manufacturing value added as
%GDP
Base

17
narrow

24
diversified

31
highly
diversified

Export
Export base
Kwan's Specialization Index
Light Manufacturing
Capital goods

narrow
0.17
-0.09

diversified
0.70
-0.50

highly
diversified
0.80
+0.70

10

48

80

146

685

1,677

22

28

54

GNI per capita ($)

A table showing:
Relative Position of
Bangladesh in Selected
Development
Parameters.

Agricultural value added per

worker ($)

Paved Road (%)

Per capita electricity
consumption (KWH)
Mobile Subscribe (per 1,000
population)
Law and Order scale=1~5

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

Note: The data relates mostly to 2007. LMI = lower middle income; UMI = upper middle. Per capita income of
about $1,000 and $3,700 are respectively the threshold levels for LMI and UMI countries. For Kwans index, -1
and +1 implies no specialization and complete specialization respectively.
*At present, the per capita national income for FY 2008-09 is 690$

6-

7
Current policies and regulatory frameworks

A plethora of acts, policies and guidelines are in place, some are more
robust than the others, which is guiding the nation towards the
realization of Digital Bangladesh (see box 1). Two of the documents,
the ICT Policy 2009 and the Strategic Priorities for Digital Bangladesh
(A2I, 2011) also contain elaborate work plans. Because of the crosscutting nature of the vision, these work plans encompass priorities in
almost all development sectors.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

Box 1: Digital Bangladesh policies and regulatory framework

ICT Policy 2009

Right to Information Act 2009

Perspective Plan

ICT Act 2013 (amended)

Strategic Priorities of Digital Bangladesh

Cyber Security Policy 2010

Rural Connectivity Policy Guideline 2010

Broadband Policy

Mobile Keypad Standardization Policy

Guidelines for Utility Bill Payment

e-Krishi Policy

National e-Governance Architecture

Mobile Banking Policy Guideline

National Telecom Policy 2010

Guidelines on Mobile Financial Services (MFS) for the Bank

Secretariat Instructions 2014 (amended)

Proactive Information Disclosure Guidelines 2014

Innovation Team gazette

National Portal management gazette

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

Objectives and methodology

It is to be pointed out that for realization of Digital Bangladesh, a Perspective

Plan has been formulated (GED, 2012). The latter sets strategic directions and
provides a broad outline for making Vision 2021 a reality.

The present background paper is a tracer study which offers an overview of the
Digital Bangladeshs progress from both the institutional and market
perspectives.

Due to continued expansion of the digital economy across the globe, growing
expectations are riding particularly in G20 and emerging countries. In G20
countries, the digital economy is growing at more than 10 per cent a year (Dean
et al., 2012). The growth of the internet economy in emerging countries is even
faster: 12-25 per cent per year (WEF, 2014). Internet-based economic or iGDP
activity is expected to reach USD 4.2 trillion in the G-20 nations by 2018.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

10

Progress towards ICT

Online transaction and payment infrastructure

Usage of ICT in e-transactions, e-commerce and e-procurement have

been made possible through the amended ICT Act 2009 (amendment)
which has applied the provision for digital signature certificate through
appointing the 6 certified Controller of Certifying Authority, (CCAP)
organizations. 3 CAs have developed the capacity to provide digital
signature certificates to government and private organizations and
individuals. The BCC has been certified as the CA for issuing digital
certificates to the government organizations. The Right to Information
(RTI) Act 2009 has taken effect in order to make information easily
available. As noted in the preceding section, Bangladesh Bank has
already inaugurated NPS to support online transactions.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

11

Progress towards ICT

Promotion of e-business and commerce

The capacity of local ICT industry plays an important role to empower businesses and
citizens. To support the development of the ICT industry, Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Act
was passed in 2010. Subsequently, Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA) was
established in 2010. The purpose of the Act is to establish BHTPA for creation,
management, operation and development of hi-tech parks across the country.

Bangladeshs first university based incubator is being established at the campus of

Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET). This incubator will help to
bridge the gap between ICT industries and academia for fostering meaningful
research, innovation, entrepreneurship, job creation, and industry ready human
resource development. More than BDT 95 million have been allocated over 2013-2015
to develop and promote the model of high value ICT research, innovations and
entrepreneurships in the country.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

12

Progress towards ICT

Cyber Security

As much as it is important to expand the e-commerce and online payment

infrastructure to have an efficient and optimized market in the country it is
that much important to enforce the cyber security of the country

As of 2016,Bangladesh has had noticeable advancements in the e-security

field, biometric authorization across government offices and workplaces.
Biometric registration of sim-cards. As well as 2FA authorization across
private banks in Bangladesh such as DBBL, City Bank.

Users are now also less prone to hacks as number legal software users are
increasing everyday compared to the years of early 2000.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

13

E-Government

E-Government is an important initiative by the present government to give better services

to the people. In fact, this initiative was put as an attractive slogan of Digital Bangladesh
in the governments Election Manifesto of 2008. But what has been achieved so far? Here
we try to discover the reality on the ground, in terms of successes and failures, challenges
and opportunities. Here we try to examine organizational capacity, readiness of personnel,
capacity of IT infrastructure for e-government, i.e Digital Bangladesh. National Id Card
system is a product of e-government service .In order to do that a structured questionnaire
was used to get primary data from the 706 respondents, who are civil servants working in
different government offices all over the administrative regions of Bangladesh. Research
instruments like Cronbachs Alpha reliability test results have considered that
questionnaires items were reliable and consistent. ANOVA and regression result has shown
the model is significant and some of the independent and dependent variables have
positive and significant impact on eGovernment. Moreover, the Pearsons correlation result
found that among the dependent and independent variables have positive association with
Digital or e-Government in Bangladesh. Finally, conclusion and policy implications drawn up
for future directions.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

14

Perspective on
Digital Village

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

15

Perspective on Digital Village

Present age is often referred to as information age and the society is called information
society. The key to information age and information society is the use of digital technology,
that is, information and communication technology (ICT), to the needs of the society. ICT
plays the most significant role in changing, updating and advancing the present society.
The effect of ICT is so significant that the world is now considered as a global village.

Telemedicine services at upozillas, and videoconferencing for treatment of diseases,

videoconferencing for administrative activities from centre to districts are examples of eservices available up to rural Bangladesh.

Union Information Centers, District Information Cells, National Information Cell are
revolutionary additions to the lifestyle in the country. Such services eliminate the middleman and save time and money. There are many more developments in this line. Without
such digital technologies, our cities and towns would have been turned to ghost places by
now. In the districts, Deputy Commissioner Offices provide a large number of e-services to
the rural clients.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

16

Perspective of our HDI

Bangladesh

has moved one notch up to the 142nd place in the Human Development Index (HDI) among 187
countries for its progress in health sector and reducing gender gap, says a UNDP report. It puts Bangladesh
among the 18 countries showing extraordinary progress in human development.The Human Development
Report 2014, released worldwide yesterday, shows the country has demonstrated a good track record of
inclusive development and is doing better than India, Pakistan and Nepal, the positions of which remained
unchanged.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) publishes the annual assessment based on the data of three
elements -- a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
This year, the UNDP has also introduced a Gender Development Index (GDI) where Bangladesh ranks 107th,
well ahead of India and Pakistan at 132nd and 145th places respectively.
Bangladesh shares the 142nd spot with the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe.
Mohammad Mejbahuddin, secretary of Economic Relations Division, credited this achievement partly to the
micro-credit programmes across the country.
"The revolution of micro-credit has created the opportunity of self-employment. When people's income
increases, investment in health and education will automatically go up," he said."All these have contributed [to
the achievement] and we hope that we will be able to move faster in the coming days," he added.
Bangladesh has fared better than India in the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as well.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

17

Figure : Trends in Bangladeshs HDI

component indices 1980-2014
Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

Figure : Trends in Bangladeshs HDI 1980-2012

18

e-Citizen Services

e-Citizen Services is a term which refers to completing various works

and services of a citizens daily life swiftly by making use of electronic
and digital means.

Bangladesh Government has already taken steps to establish e-Citizen

services such as online payment of water, gas electric bills, online
booking of bus ,train and plane tickets.

E-Learning is also a e-Citizen service through which remote areas of

the countrys population can learn many things through video and
demonstration through internet and satellite calls.

All other initiatives for e-Citizen services are given in next slide :

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

e-Citizen Services
Description

Responsibility

Update (MoF 2014)

Develop national web portal as a one-stop

shop for delivering e-citizen services

All government agencies

Services Portal and Forms Portal

Enable payment of utility bills through mobile

phones, banks, ATMs or other service centers
from any location and at any time of the day

All relevant government

agencies, PPP

Various public and private

organizations have started providing
mobile-based services (m-services)
since 2009

Introduce service to access public transport

schedules, fares and ticket purchasing
through the Internet and mobile phone.

MOC, PPP

e-Ticketing and mobile ticketing

introduced but for specific routes

Allow online registration and work permit for

foreign investors

BOI

In place

Introduction automation of all customs check

points

NBR, Port Authorities, PPP

Automation of Chittagong and Dhaka

Customs

Introduction of online payment both for

transaction within country and international

BB, PPP

Authorized dealer banks have been

directed to cooperate with Online
Payment Gateway Service Provider
(OPGSP)

Introduce online application for licenses in

business, vehicle registration etc.

Multiple
agencies

Vehicle registration confirmation being

sent through SMS

Automation of land record and registration system

MOLPA, PPP

Couple of pilot projects to be scaled up ones

implementation is successfully completed:
"Deed Registration Digitization" program;
Strengthening Governance Management
Project, Component B

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

20

Existing m-services

m-Services are services which can be used or accessed through

mobile or cell phones.

In recent years, the mobile industry in Bangladesh has developed at an extraordinary rate.
Today there areapproximately ten million mobile customers and coverage extends to 90%
of the population. With a populationof 144 million (2005 figures), Bangladesh is the seventh
most populous country in the world.

Typically in developing countries, mobile services now take the role that fixed
communications played in developed countries in the 1950s to 1970s. However, countries
developing today have the advantage that mobile communications are far cheaper and
easier to deploy than fixed communications. The lower cost of installing mobile services
compared with fixed services, particularly in rural areas, allows disadvantaged groups to
gain access to communications more quickly.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

Existing m-Services
Area

m-Service

21

Agriculture

e-Tathyakosh (infokosh) and pipilica offering general and tailored information

IVR based Farmers Call Center by Banglalink
Agriculture content development for tele-centers by Grameen Phone and other private sector operators
e-Purjee introduced as an SMS-based public sugarcane procurement system, informing farmers to bring in
their cane

Disaster management

Weather information through 10941 short code

Early Disaster Warning alerts by Teletalk, Grameenphone, and Banglalink

Education

Since 2009, applications for admission registration at 32 public universities, 400 colleges, all public
medical colleges are being carried out through SMS service
Upto 2013, 2.7 million applications processed
SSC, HSC, JSC and PSC examination results being delivered through mobile phone text message service
since 2009

Employment

Citizens can apply for job positions in the Bangladesh Civil Service and Bangladesh Army through SMS.
BMET has a special arrangement for targeting certain categories of workers which vary according to the
requirement of host countries.
Important information is disseminated to prospective migrant workers through SMS services.

Local government

Detailed, IVR-based, 64 district-level information can be accessed through short code

16345

Smartphone apps

There are a lot of smartphone apps that citizens are using, developed by private
entrepreneurs. Smart phone app to locate and call all DMP police stations, apps on public
information like Airport flight information, apps on health, agriculture, education, and
many other services

Miscellaneous

e-Ticketing is available for entertainment shows at the Bangabandhu Sheikh

MujiburRahman Novo Theater.

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

Budget allocation for ICT over the last 5

Years

Budget allocation for ICT

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

22

Indicators for Measuring Digital

Bangladesh

Table : Core indicators on online public service delivery (UNDESAs

online service index)

Digital Bangladesh Are We Ready?

23

Elaboration of Digital
Bangladesh : ICT Sector
Abrar Islam

subjects
GNI
NRI
IDI
EGDI

GNI
PER

CAPITAL GROSS INCOME

TOTAL

INCOME IN USD / TOTAL POPULATION.

JULY 1,2014.
LOW-INCOME

COUNTRY (1045 USD)

MIDDLE-INCOME
NATIONAL
National

COUNTRY (1045-12,746 USD)

ICT POLICY-2009 (SHORT,MID,LONG)

ICT Policy-2009 was developed with a view to

achieve middle-income status of the nation by 2021 and
developed status by 2041.

ACHIVEMENTS

The nation now, with over 12 crore mobile subscribers and 4.3 crore Internet
subscribers

registration for admission to academic institutions, publication of results of

examinations, registration for jobs abroad, registration of pilgrimage, collection
of official forms, online submission of tax returns, online tendering, etc.

Telemedicine services, videoconferencing for the treatment of diseases, and

video conferencing for administrative activities .

e-services available to rural Bangladesh.

Turning eight thousand village post offices and approximately five hundred
upazila post offices into e-centers and the introduction of mobile money order
and postal cash cards

Deputy Commissioner Offices in districts and UNO offices in upazilas provide a

large number of e-services to rural client

STATUS & RANKING

Responsible international organisations like the :

United Nations

(EGDI)
World Economic Forum (NRI)
International Telecommunication UNION
(IDI)

NRI
NETWORK

REDINESS INDEX (NRI)

World Economic Forum assesses the impact of ICT on the
competitiveness of the nations of the world.
The four sub-indices of NRI are:
Environment (business, innovation, political and regulatory),
Readiness (infrastructure, digital contents, affordability, skills),
Usage (individuals, businesses and government), and
Impact of ICT (economic and social impact).
BANGLADESH(3.21)
: Finland (6.04), Singapore (5.97), Sweden (5.93), Netherlands
(5.79), Norway (5.70), Switzerland (5.62), United States (5.61)

COUNTRY

Bangladesh
Bhutan
India
Nepal
Pakistan
Sri Lanka

2014

119 (score
3.21)
94 (score
3.68)
83 (score
3.85)
123 (score
3.09)
111 (score
3.33)
76 (score
3.94)

2013

2012

114

113

N/A

N/A

68

69

126

128

105

102

69

71

IDI
ICT

Development Index (IDI)

International

Telecommunication Union (ITU)

BASED

ON 11 INDICATORS.

THREE

CATEGORIES: Access, Use and Skills

Bangladesh

needs special attention for improvement in the Use subcategory (score of 0.27, rank 150), Access sub-index (score of 2.5,
rank 143) as well as the quick expansion of broadband wireless
Internet services.

BNAGLADESH
Denmark

(1.97).

(8.86), Korea Republic (8.85), Sweden (8.67), Iceland

(8.64), UK (8.50), Norway (8.39), Netherlands (8.38), Finland (8.31),
Hong Kong (8.28) and Luxemburg (8.26).

COUNTRY

2013

2012

2011

Afghanistan

155 (score 1.67)

155

N/A

Bangladesh

145 (score 1.97) 146

139

India

129 (score 2.53)

129

120

Nepal

131 (score 2.37)

134

N/A

Pakistan

142 (score 2.05)

141

128

Bhutan

123 (score 2.85)

126

117

Sri Lanka

116 (score 3.24)

113

107

Myanmar

150 (score 1.82)

148

N/A

EGDI

United Nation's e-Government Development Index (EGDI) .

Evaluates the impact of ICT on the political economy of a

country.

This index focuses on how governments use ICT to deliver

services to the people and opportunities for citizens to
participate in the decision-making process.

EGDI is measured on the basis of online services,

technological infrastructure and human capital.

COUNTRY

2014

2012

2010

Afghanistan

173 (score 0.1900)

184

168

Bangladesh

148 (score 0.2757)

150

134

Bhutan

143 (score 0.2829)

152

152

India

118 (score 0.3834)

125

119

Maldives

94 (score 0.4813)

95

92

Myanmar

175 (score 0.1869)

160

141

Nepal

165 (score 0.2344)

164

153

Pakistan

158 (score 0.2580)

156

146

Sri Lanka

74 (score 0.5418)

115

111

Interpretation
Digital Village and
m-Services
Presented by Sabbya Sachi.

Digital Village
A Simple Comparison

Ordinary Village where only children

learn

Digital Village where people of all ages

can learn freely

Current Digital Services in Village.

Digitalization

Healthcare

of Rural

With an aim to bring health service onto the

doorstep of rural people, a project is on to
prepare a database of mothers and their children
in Chirirbandar of Dinajpur.
Started in October 2013, health workers have
already prepared a database of 1,845 mothers
and 7,689 children in the upazila in the last five
months.
In Durgapur village, a health worker of the
project, Shahnaj Parveen, was seen entering
health related data using a web application
installed in her tablet PC.
I never thought of operating a tablet PC living in
the rural area. But I am happy, as it has been a
reality now, she added.
Dr Steve Withington, executive director of Lamb
Hospital, said his organisation in association with
Plan International Bangladesh had been working
on the database under the project Women and
their Children Health (Watch) to ensure health
security for the rural mothers and their children.

Digital Systems of Agriculture.

The e-Agriculture Community provides an international

framework to facilitate the processes of capturing, managing
and disseminating the lessons learned through national and
regional activities, as well as the results and implications of
multilateral processes related to the use of ICT in agriculture
and rural development. The e-Agriculture Community also
provides the basis for the international community to
monitor development and validation of conceptual models
and methodologies and to package and disseminate them
once tested. Through its collective activities some additional
outputs of the Community include: the development and
strengthening of innovative mechanisms and processes for
information exchange and communication, including
normative guidelines and tools being formulated, tested and
disseminated to address the range of demands and
capabilities of different Community members; empowering
networks for exchange of new mechanisms and processes
among key stakeholders; relevant content in digital format
being developed, filtered, mobilized and exchanged by
community members; and other activities based on active
partnerships and collaborative lesson-learning.

Aims of Digitalizing Agriculture in Rural

Areas
e-Agriculture

can carry

out

Getting demand driven agricultural suggestions;

Farmers can get appropriate solution from the

concern expert direct from the field;

E-mail sharing in Bangla and English;

Mobile Phone- Call/SMS/MMS/ AM/ BM/IVR/WAPS systems;

Radio broadcast through Medium weave, Short wave, FM band and Community

Production cost become less so getting

maximum yield and production;
Exact result can be ensured directly and
immediately for the betterment of agriculture;

Tele-centre/Call center

Website or portal in Bangla and English;

Improve agricultural production technology can

get from dimensional sectors;

Weapon of e-Agriculture

AICC, RIC, CIC, FICC, FIAC, FSC and all other social community clubs & hubs;

Area of e-agriculture

e-Agriculture must be well oriented on Seed, Fertilizer, Agricultural mechanization, Irrigation, Pest
management, credit, integrated and adoptive research, Extension activities, Biotechnology,
Information Management, Farmers Association, Marketing, Preservation, Processing, Subsidy, Food
procurement, Education, Industry, Employment, Climate and weather and specially total
agricultural management system can be accelerated.

Quickest dissemination of agricultural

information and technology;

Web Television and Web Radio;

Public and Private TV channel through terrestrial and satellite facilities;

Radio

Teleconference/Video conference/Phone in Program/Video chatting;

Video documentary, audio documentary, agricultural content digitization

through
online & offline

Elaboration of mServices

The GSM Association commissioned Ovum to conduct a study into the economic and social benefits
of
mobile services in Bangladesh. We were asked to examine whether there were any policy barriers
that may
prevent the full extent of any benefits of mobile services from being realized. In the event that
policy and
legislative barriers were found, we were asked to identify recommendations for change.

Our

key findings from the study are as follows:

Almost a quarter of a million Bangladeshi depend on the mobile industry, directly and indirectly.

Mobile services contribute US$650 million to the economy every year.

Mobile services are good value for money when compared with other countries.

Mobile communications allow businesses to operate with greater efficiency.

For every additional 10 percentage points of mobile penetration, the annual GDP growth rate is increased by

approximately 0.6%.

Higher mobile penetration will assist Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Increasing penetration by 1% increases
FDI as

a proportion of GDP by 0.5%.

The poorest citizens benefit most from mobile services.

Mobile services improve social cohesion, assist in reducing the digital divide, improve access to healthcare
and can

help improve users quality of life.

However the full realisation of these benefits is in

jeopardy unless firm policy and legislative action is
taken.
The key concerns that need to be addressed are:

High taxes. Of particular concern is the very high burden of industry specific taxes (taxes
levied on this industry only but not others). Considering all activities linked with the sector ,
these comprise 35% of the total tax generated by the industry. This diverts resources away
from the mobile communications sector and towards less productive sectors.

The tax policy is likely to be counter-productive for the Government as it reduces total tax
revenue. Ultimately, the consumer pays as the operators have no option but to pass the taxes
through to their customers. Worse still, the tax regime makes mobile services much more
expensive for those who need them most: the poor and those living in rural areas.

The interconnection regime. The interconnection regime the system that controls payments
between operators for connecting calls is fundamentally flawed and in need of reform.
Currently, the interconnection system subsidises the less productive and more expensive fixedline services, whilst harming the more productive and cheaper mobile industry.

 We offer the following recommendations to

address these problems:

Industry specific taxes should be gradually reduced and, in the medium term, removed entirely. This will encourage the
development of the industry, the economy and increase government revenues.

Currently, mobile-to-mobile interconnection is based on reciprocity. Likewise, fixed-to-mobile interconnection charges

should be introduced on a reciprocity basis to increase mobile penetration and generate greater economic and social
benefits.

Mobile-to-fixed interconnection charges should be brought down towards cost to bring an end to this inefficient subsidy
from the mobile to the fixed sector.

Competition is the best regulator: the government should allow competition between the mobile operators to
determine mobile retail prices. No action, formal or informal, should be taken to regulate mobile retail prices. Price
controls are well recognized to be a very blunt instrument: they are costly to design and implement and prevent
operators structuring their prices in ways necessary to maximize customer welfare. However, in the case of fixed retail
prices, the argument for retail price regulation is very much an open debate especially in the light of BTTBs impending
restructuring and privatization.

The prohibition on competitors using WLL technology to provide mobility should be effectively enforced.

International gateways should be liberalised to improve competition in the provision of outbound international calls.

Measures should be introduced to encourage local equipment assembly and manufacturing of components such as switch
boxes, batteries and raw materials to ensure a reliable and low-cost source of supply to the industry and to ensure that
more of the benefits of mobile services remain within Bangladesh.

m-Services

Recommendations for
Digital Bangladesh
Presented by Shakerul Islam Ruposh

High Speed Communication:

Digital Bangladesh with Vision 2021 is a big impetus
for the use of digital technology in the country. In spite
of several bottlenecks and limitations, works are in
progress for the realisation of Digital Bangladesh.
Several projects for digitalisation have been completed
and a big number of projects are under progress. The
nation now, with over 12 crore mobile subscribers and
4.3 crore Internet subscribers and maximum of them
are under 3g facelity.

E-MONEY TRANSFER:
The regular paper based money order service of the post
office seemed a time consuming, expensive and inefficient
approach of remit money to any part of the country. There
was a demand for quick transfer of money to locations where
the beneficiary can collect and use it instantly. With this
perspective in view, Bangladesh Post launched a new money
order service named Electronic Money Transfer Service
(EMTS), commonly known as Mobile Money Order Service.
This fulfilled the expectations of people to remit the desired
amount of money to their near and dear ones so as to utilize
when they need. This is mobile as well as web based
remittance service available in all important post offices of
the country. The sender can send the money within a minute
and recipient/beneficiary can collect it instantly. Both sender
and recipient get confirmation of the remittance and
disbursement as soon as it is made in their mobile phones.

SMART ID CARD:
The new cards will include a photograph of the voters along with
other necessary information. The cards will be equipped with as
many as 25 security features to ensure forgery prevention. This will
be a significant improvement upon the existing paper based,
laminated cards, which are quite easy to counterfeit and law
enforcers have already arrested several individuals for producing
fake NID cards. The EC will generate 90 million cards at a cost of
Taka 800 core under its Identification System for Enhancing Access
to Services (IDEA) project. Apart from serving as NID and Voter ID
card, these cards can alsobe used in availing other services such
astaxpayers identification number (TIN), driving license, passport,
banking, trade license, marriage registration, health cards, utility
services, admission in education institutions and so on.

Limitation:
Bangladesh is a middle earning country. Our GDP
is not as much as the developed country. So we are
not being digitalized in every sector for budget.
Security issue is one of them. There needs a
proper biometric id verification system in every
office and institute but we cannot do that. Though
e money transfer has begun its journey but most
of the place is out of its boundary. Our neighbor
India and USA also have started e token system for
their passport but we are still unable to get this
facilities. For the lack of technology we cannot
control the cyber crime. There is a easy backdoor
to hack the bank money for skilled hacker.

Sources & References :

MoF.(2014a). Digital Bangladesh Update. Dhaka: Finance Division, Ministry of Finance

(MoF). Available online at
http://www.mof.gov.bd/en/budget/14_15/digital_bangladesh/digital_bn.pdf (Accessed on
10 October 2014).

ITU (2014).Success Stories. Geneva: International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Available online http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/opb/pol/S-POL-WSIS.SUCC_STORIES2014-PDF-E.pdf(Accessed on 05 September 2014).

ITU. (2013). Measuring Information Society. Geneva: International Telecommunication

Union (ITU).

GED. (2010). Sixth Five Year Plan: FY2011-FY2015 Accelerating Growth and Reducing
Poverty: Sectoral Strategies, Programmes and Policies. Dhaka: General Economics
Division (GED), Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Government of Bangladesh.

Global Information Society (GIS) Watch 2013. Women Rights, Gender and ICTs. Available
online: http://giswatch.org/sites/default/files/gisw13_chapters.pdf (Accessed on 14
November 2014).

A2I. (2011). Strategic Priorities of Digital Bangladesh. Dhaka: Access to Information

(A2I).

Basu, S. (2004). E-government and Developing Countries: An Overview. International

Review of Law Computers and Technology, 18(1): 110-111.

http://www.thedailystar.net/digital-villages-for-digital-bangladesh-15977

http://www.thedailystar.net/bangladesh-goes-one-notch-up-34791

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