Country ICT Scenario: Bangladesh

1
Country ICT ScenarioBangladesh

• Aminul Islam Saleh Khan
• UNDP Bangladesh

Regional ICT for Development Programme Officers
Workshop Kulal Lumpur, Malaysia 9 13 December
2002
2
ICT Scenario Institutional

• Ministry of Science and Technology renamed to
  Ministry of Science and ICT with new mandate
• Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
  Commission set up to provide guidance and policy
  inputs in the sector
• National ICT Policy formulated
• ICT related activities seen as the next big thing
  in terms of export earnings and national
  development
• No duties / taxes on computer hardware and
  software
• since1998

3
GoBs ICT Policy

• Prime Minister declares ICT as the Thrust
  Sector in National Development Plan and the
  key-driving element for socio-economic
  development
• Aims at building an ICT driven nation by 2006
• Broad based policy that stresses on human
  resource, infrastructure and enabling environment
  development

4
Bangladesh Successes

• IT parks developed by NGOs and CSOs
• BRAC has set up rural public libraries and is in
  process of linking these to the Internet
• Test case IT village set up by Grameen
• Private sector initiatives in telemedicine
• Government actively mainstreaming IT education at
  primary / secondary level
• Cellular phone overtook limited available fixed
  landlines in
• 2001 to facilitate telecommunication in
  remote villages

5
Bangladesh Obstacles

• Lack of high speed access to the Internet
• Lack of telecommunication infrastructure
• Lack of legal / financial environment to support
  e-Commerce
• Inexperience in catering to the global software
  market and to compete in it

6
CO Bangladesh

• ICT for Development in process of being main
  streamed in practice area programmes / projects
• Task force formed to provide policy guidance to
  the CO by January 2003
• Has IT / ICT components in some of its projects
  with SDNP being the only true ICT4D programme
• Office Intranet (OfficeNet) developed to
  facilitate knowledge networking / collaboration
  in the CO

7
Mandate ICT4D Task Force

• To identify feasibility of undertaking ICT4D
  programmes / projects in Bangladesh
• To identify sectors for intervention in
  Bangladesh and identify development niches to
  cater to
• To identify mechanisms facilitating knowledge
  networking with SURFs and APDIP
• To expand partnership with other development
  actors in the country as well as with civil
  society and NGO partners

8
Upcoming ICT Initiatives

• SPPD under formulation with the assistance of ITU
  to assist telecom regulatory reforms
• Pipeline project on e-Governance, through the
  ICT-TTF, to promote SMEs as a model of poverty
  alleviation through the use of e-Government
  initiatives in the Ministry of Trade and Commerce
• Awareness / advocacy sessions on office
  re-orientation using ICT based tools to
  facilitate knowledge sharing / collaboration to
  government and donor partners

9
Donor Initiatives

• No clear information / compilation of data in the
  sector
• ICT project rides on others projects /
  programmes
• DFiD exploring the sector to enter
• World Bank group funded project on developing
  infrastructure in the telecommunications sector