Country Report of Bangladesh on

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Country Report of Bangladeshon e-Government
Presented By Md. Yakub Ali Bhuiyan Assistant
Director Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
Commission (BTRC)
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Country Affairs Name Peoples
Republic of Bangladesh Area 147,570 sq.
Km/56,977 sq. miles Population 123.1
million Capital City Dhaka Currency Taka
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Outline of the Presentation

• Introduction
• What is e-Government
• e-Government Bangladesh perspective
• Barriers of e-Government in Bangladesh
• e-Government in Bangladesh
• General challenges of e-Government
• Concluding Remarks

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Introduction
We have recently stepped into a new century, a
new millennium, in which changes are taking place
more rapidly then ever before. Ttechnology is
making our planet in the word of Marshall
Machluhan a Global Village. But, technological
facilities are not properly utilized by many
entities of this global village. As a result,
they are lagging behind from the economic, social
and technological advancement. So, we need to
develop a way to provide them with this
technological facilities.
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What is e-Government
e-Government or electronic government may be
defined as delivery of government services and
information to the public using electronic
means. Such means of delivering information is
often referred to as information technology or
IT in short form. Use of IT in government
facilitates an efficient, speedy and transparent
process for disseminating information to the
public and other agencies and for performing
government administration activities.
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e-Government Bangladesh Perspective
Bangladesh is yet to fully reap the benefit out
of this sector for her growth and development.
Although lower prices for personal computers and
low priced Internet service providers are
enabling greater numbers of people to participate
in the information revolution but 85 of
Bangladeshis are still deprived of the facility
of ICT which shrink the e-Government in
Bangladesh.
i) Governments commitment to ICT for
e-Government ICT has been declared as the thrust
sector by the Government. Realizing the
importance of ICT, a comprehensive ICT Policy has
been formulated and
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e-Government Bangladesh Perspective
(Contd.)
a National ICT Task Force, headed by the
Honorable Prime Minister herself, has been
formed.
ii) ICT Policy of Bangladesh For the
development of ICT sector within the framework of
overall national development, the Government has
finalized the national ICT Policy. The Policy
aims at building an ICT-driven nation comprising
of knowledge-based society by the year 2010.
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e-Government Bangladesh Perspective
(Contd.)
Main objectives of the National ICT Policy,
2002.

• Provide effective incentives for development of
  ICT sector to both local and foreign
  entrepreneurs.

• Develop an efficient ICT infrastructure that
  provides open access to international and
  national network.

• Promote and facilitate use of ICT in all sectors
  of the economy of transparency, good governance
  and efficiency improvement.

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e-Government Bangladesh Perspective (Contd.)

• Establish legislative and regulatory framework
  for ICT issues like IPR, data security and
  protection, digital signature, e-Government,
  e-Commerce, ICT education etc. as well as to
  ensure quality ICT education provided by
  different private organizations.

• Set up national databases that are reliable and
  easily accessible to all the people of the
  country.

• Promote use of ICT by providing special
  allocations for ICT project implementation in the
  public sector. Train the decision makers in ICT
  use and promote an ICT culture.

• Develop a large pool of world class ICT
  professionals to meet the needs of local and
  global markets.

• Set up a very high quality ICT institution to
  promote and foster ICT industry.

• Enact laws and regulations for uninterrupted
  growth of ICT, in conformity with World Trade
  Organization (WTO) stipulations.

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e-Government Bangladesh Perspective (Contd.)

iii) Contribution of Government and private
sector for introducing e-Government in
Bangladesh Government sector Bangladesh
Telegraph Telephone Board (BTTB), a state
enterprise, is the monopoly operator. BTTB has
671 telephone exchanges, 945,281 line capacity
and 806,000 subscribers. BTTB is going to start
cellular mobile service commercially from
March,2005. Private Sector In late 1996,
Grameen Phone (GP), a Grameen Bank concern, made
a major break through in the field of Rural
Telecommunication. In Bangladesh two private
fixed phone company named Bangladesh Rural
Telecom Authority (BRTA) and Sheba Telecom have
also been providing telephone service for the
rural people since 1989 and 1994 respectively.
BRTA and Sheba have 153 digital exchanges 57,550
line capacity and 20,792 subscribers. More over
three (3) other private mobile companies also
contributed for bridging the digital divide in
Bangladesh.
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e-Government Bangladesh Perspective.
(Contd.)
The present positions of the cellular mobile
telephone service are as follow
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e-Government Bangladesh Perspective.
(Contd.)
IV. Current IT-based services

• Fixed Telephone service.
• Cellular mobile Telephone service
• Overseas service
• Data service
• Pay phone service
• Internet service
• E-Government
• E-Commerce

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Barriers for expansion of e-Government

• Economy
• Access to the Technology
• Literacy
• Language
• Lack of Local Social Issues in the Net

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e-Government in Bangladesh

• a) What has been done
• Use of Fiber Optic Network of Bangladesh Railway
  by private Domestic Data Service Providers.
• BTRC is issuing nationwide ISP license to a
  number of private operators with nominal fees.
  BTRC has reduced tariff of ISP, DDCSP, VSAT fees.
• BTTB has already started providing Internet
  services at district levels.
• ICT policy has been formulated.

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e-Government in Bangladesh
(Contd.)

• A number of ICT associations, for example
  Bangladesh Computer Society (BCS), are holding
  yearly computer shows/fairs, seminars, and other
  activities to create public awareness.
• The Government of Bangladesh has created a new
  ministry to put emphasis on the growth of ICT
  sector (Ministry of Science and Information and
  Communication Technology) in the country.
• Government has recently initiated ICT Incubator
  project.

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e-Government in Bangladesh
(Contd.)

• BTRC allowed Open licensing procedure for ISP. In
  rural areas any one can get the ISP license by
  giving a nominal fee (Taka 1000.00 or US 18
  only).

• Other activities that have been taken for the
  purpose of expansion of e-Government by
  developing ICT in Bangladesh are given below
• Tax Relief
• Financial support
• 10,000 computers for secondary schools

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e-Government in Bangladesh
(Contd.)

• ICT Incubation Center
• Inventory of ICT Institutions
• Strengthening Bangladesh Computer Council
• Computer Training
• ICT Infrastructure
• Internet Access

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e-Government in Bangladesh
(Contd.)
The present position of the Internet Service
related licence in Bangladesh is as follow
Total ISP subscribers 200,000 (appx.) Total
Cyber Café users 30,000 (appx.)
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e-Government in Bangladesh (Contd.)

• b) What is to be done for expansion of
  e-Government in Bangladesh
• Computer and Basic literacy is a must to ensure
  the effective Internet access, which is the
  critical lacking of local user. So to expand
  e-Government in Bangladesh, government should
  emphasize on the basic literacy and IT literacy
  of the local people.
• We need to learn to adopt apply technology
  appropriately. Only using technology effectively
  expansion of e-Government may be maximized.

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e-Government in Bangladesh (Contd.)

• We have still a series of extensive works to do
  from government and private level for maximizing
  the use of e-Government. Strategic Integration
  for industry partnership between Government
  initiatives and other organizations to foster the
  steps to maximizing the e-Government and creating
  environment for the use of web.
• BTRC are to formulate policies so that all the
  operators can have access to resources evenly and
  justly. For example, there is a lot of anomaly in
  allocating frequencies previously before BTRC
  came into being, which are needed to be addressed
  now.

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e-Government in Bangladesh (Contd.)

• Donor agencies and UN organizations have to take
  realistic steps for generating projects to
  strengthen e-Government.
• Liberalization of Taxes and other fees to
  facilitate infrastructure development.
• Further deregulation of Telecommunication Sector.
  
• Creation of an independent Software Export Board.
• Decentralization of software industry so that the
  development is evenly focused across the country.

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e-Government in Bangladesh (Contd.)

• Creation of Internet exchange so that all the
  ISPs can be connected. Using the nationwide Fiber
  Optic Network(FON) and other private and
  government infrastructures the ISPs can be
  interconnected.
• Interactive and real time information support on
  Market condition for the rural business people.
• Introducing Services for education, employment,
  healthcare, market, business information,
  weather, communication, etc. for the rural
  people.

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e-Government in Bangladesh
(Contd.)

• Intensive ICT awareness program to be launched.
• Government should go for further infrastructure
  development.
• NGOs working in the rural area to be integrated
  with the program.
• Wireless ISP service to be offered.
• Discussion group and e-news letter can be a very
  effective tool to share the resources and
  information.

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e-Government in Bangladesh
(Contd.)

• Digital Platform for getting access to the web
  may be established.

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General Challenges of e-Government

• Infrastructural Issues
• Most government offices have largely inadequate
  number of computers
• Many offices have unused computers gathering dust
  
• A few offices have access to the Internet
• Only a handful have internal LAN
• Generally only high-level officials get access to
  computers

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General Challenges of e-Government (contd.)

• Legal/ Regulatory Issues
• No specific law against cyber crime
• No law for Electronic Authentication
• No Electronic Certification Authority
• Human Resource Issues
• Only about 5,000 IT graduates per year
• Many of them leave the country
• Most private training centers are much below
  standard and exploit students
• No link between job creation and IT education

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General Challenges of e-Government
(contd.)

• Inadequate supply of electricity
• about 35 have access to electricity
• daily power cuts even in city centers
• High-cost, low-reliability of Internet
• no inexpensive options outside cities
• Lack of local software companies
• individual companies often not large enough in
  terms of HR capacity
• most lack of professional management

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Concluding Remarks
Bangladesh would like to catch up with the
countries of Asia and Pacific region who have
advanced very far in developing and creating a
knowledge based society by using ICT.
Bangladesh will welcome assistance in this
sector from the developed countries of the APT
region. So Bangladesh expects that APT will
co-operate and come forward to overcome the
barriers of e-Government problem and promote
digital opportunities for achieving economic and
social development by using ICT.
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Thank You