1.

1 ICT (Information and Communications Technology)

ICT is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing:
radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite
systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as
videoconferencing and distance learning.
The ICT sector of Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing sectors of its economy. ICT has been
declared as the thrust sector by the Government. A comprehensive ICT Policy has been
formulated and a National ICT Task Force, headed by the Honorable Prime Minister, has been
formed. The Government organization entrusted for the development and promotion of the ICT
sector is the Ministry of Science and Information & Communication Technology. Bangladesh
Computer Council (BCC), the apex body for promotion of all kinds of ICT activities in the country,
works under the Ministry of Science and Information & Communication Technology.

1.2 ICT Policy of Bangladesh

National ICT is headed by the Honorable Prime Minister. ICT has been given considerable
importance from the Prime Ministers Office in the last few years. The Ministry of Science and
Technology has been renamed as the Ministry of Science and ICT which has been entrusted the
duty of working as the primary hub for ICT policy and implementation in the country.
Broad Areas of ICT Policy:
ICT Infrastructure
ICT Capacity Building
Support to ICT Industry
Applications of ICTs for Socio-Economic Development
Regulatory Issues
Financing of ICT-Related Projects
Research and Development in ICT
The council of ministers endorsed the draft national information and communication technology
(ICT) policy-2015, which clams The ICT policy will be less regulatory but more developmental
and promotional. The policy will be implemented in three phases -- short goals are expected to
be attained by 2016, mid-term goals by 2018 and long-term ones by 2021.

1.3 Objectives of ICT

This Policy aims at building an ICT-driven nation comprising of knowledge-based society by the
year 2006. In view of this, a country-wide ICT-infrastructure will be developed to ensure access
to information by every citizen to facilitate empowerment of people and enhance democratic
values and norms for sustainable economic development by using the infrastructure for human
resources development, governance, e-commerce, banking, public utility services and all sorts of
on-line ICT-enabled services. The objectives are:
1

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 for transparency, good governance and
efficiency improvement
Establish legislative and regulatory framework for ICT issues like IPR, data security and protection,
digital signature, 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 a 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 continuously promote and foster ICT Industry
Enact Laws and Regulations for uninterrupted growth of ICT, in conformity with World Trade
Organization (WTO) stipulations.

1.4 Importance given to ICT

This Policy aims at building an ICT-driven nation comprising of knowledge-based society by the
year 2021. In view of this, a country-wide ICT-infrastructure will be developed to ensure access
to information by every citizen to facilitate empowerment of people and enhance democratic
values and norms for sustainable economic development by using the infrastructure for human
resources development, governance, e-commerce, banking, public utility services and all sorts of
on-line ICT-enabled services.
The executive committee of the national ICT task force, headed by the honorable principal
secretary, administers the implementation of decisions taken by the task force.
A program called the support to ICT task force (SICT) has been initiated, with financial support
from the government, to provide implementation and monitoring support to the task force.
The ministry of science and ICT has come up with a comprehensive ICT policy in 2002.
The ministry of post and telecom has also come up with a national telecom policy in 1998
(time for a revised policy).
Bangladesh government adopted the national ICT policy in 2008. It includes action items for
realizing the goals of national development. The constitution of Peoples republic of Bangladesh
has edified social equity. The national ICT policy of 2008 has clearly indicated the development
goals for Bangladesh. The vision and objectives are aligned with the general national goals while
the strategic themes are areas within the broad objectives that can readily benefit from the use
of ICT. The action items are generally meant to be implemented either in the Short term (18 months or less)
Medium term (5 years or less) or
Long term (10 years or less)
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1.5 ICT Vision 2021 (Digital Bangladesh)

The Government of Bangladesh has declared Vision 2021 with a target to make Bangladesh as
a middle income country using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and
development of favorable business environment for innovative companies. ICT has been
considered as a thrust sector. Vision 2021 lays down goals and strategies together with a
framework for mobilizing our natural and human resources to achieve those goals. Vision 2021
calls for Bangladeshi socio-economic environment to be transformed from a low income
economy to the first stages of a middle-income nation by the year 2021, when poverty would
have all but disappeared, where society would be full of caring and educated people living healthy
and happy lives.
The Digital Bangladesh vision, arguably, runs parallel to the Information Society vision advocated
by the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). The Honorable Finance Minister of
Bangladesh elaborated on the concept in his budget 2009-10 speech as a socio-economic
transformation process, enabled by information and communication technologies. In the same
year, the Honorable Prime Minister outlined the Digital Bangladesh having four key priorities
(a) Developing human resources ready for the 21stcentury
(b) Connecting citizens in ways most meaningful to them
(c) Taking services to citizens doorsteps
(d) Making the private sector and market more productive and competitive through the use of
digital technology
(e) Expand and diversify the use of ICTs
to establish a transparent, responsive and accountable government
develop skilled human resources
enhance social equity
ensure cost-effective delivery of citizen-services through public-private partnerships
and support the national goal of becoming a middle-income country within 2021
join the ranks of the developed countries of the world within thirty years

1.6 ICT Policies and Regulatory Framework

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. Hence, it was only
natural that the 6th Five Year Plan (6FYP) places an equal importance to Digital Bangladesh as
part of the nations development strategy. During the 6FYP period, the country has made
important strides in utilizing technology to bring in tangible transformation in all four areas
mentioned by the Prime Minister. Progress made in bringing government services to the
doorsteps of citizen is probably the area where Bangladesh registered most significant progress.
Vertical (with government ministries and agencies) and horizontal (i.e., with citizens) policy
advocacy and development interventions have resulted in a number of citizen-centric e3

initiatives and services such as multimedia classroom and teacher-led education content
development in public schools, mobile phone based health service from Upazila Health Complex,
agricultural and other livelihood information and services (e-Tathyakosh) online through
grassroots outlets.
Digital BD 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
Because of the cross-cutting nature of the vision, these work plans encompass priorities in almost
all development sectors. Hence, the 7th Five Year Plan (7FYP) needs to consult and align with
thoseat the same time, it also needs to identify scope for revising those documents in light of
changes in the national priorities set in the 6FYP.

2.1 Contribution Towards Middle Income Country

The Perspective Plan targets annual real GDP growth rate to rise to 8.0 per cent by 2015, and
further to 10.0 per cent by 2021, significantly improving living standards of the population by
drastically reducing unemployment and poverty, riding on substantially higher output and export
growth. Per capita annual income is projected to rise to about USD 2,000 (at constant 2013
dollars) by 2021, thus crossing the middle income threshold. Among others, a prudent
macroeconomic policy will be required to ensure internal and external stability, low inflation and
high economic growth. Accordingly, this chapter presents a macroeconomic framework, spelling
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out the key targets, and articulating strategies and policy guidelines underlying the Perspective
Plan FY2010-FY2021.
2.1.1 Macroeconomic Framework
The macroeconomic framework of the Perspective Plan will support the strategies and policy
guidelines to achieve the development vision through ensuring of macroeconomic stability over
the long-term. For Bangladesh, the journey to middle income country and high HDI status
requires sustained growth and its equitable and inclusive nature. The technical framework
designed to achieve growth and related dimensions of the macro economy shows that the
economy needs to grow at a consistently high rate over the next eleven years for the vision to be
realized.
Key Macroeconomic Indicators
Real GDP Growth (%)
CPI inflation (%)
Gross Investment (%)
Gross National Savings (%)
Total government revenue (%)
Total government expenditure (%)
Exports (billion US$)
Imports (billion US$)
Remittances (billion US$)
Unemployment rate (%)
Poverty (head count, %)

Benchmark FY10
Target FY15
Target FY21
6.1
8.0
10.0
7.5
6.0
5.2
As per cent of GDP
24.4
32.5
38.0
30.0
32.1
39.1
10.9
14.6
20.0
14.6
19.6
25.0
16.2
38.8
82.0
21.4
52.8
110.5
10.9
17.8
38.5
30.0
20.0
15.0
31.5
22.5
13.5
Source: Perspective Plan projections

2.1.2 Inflation control

Bangladesh has generally succeeded in maintaining reasonable price stability. Occasional spikes
in the inflation rate arose mainly as a result of supply disruptions due to natural disasters, and
global price shocks. Since high inflation, especially led by food price inflation directly hurts poor
people, the target will be to maintain a moderate rate of inflation of around 5-7 per cent per year
by ensuring well-coordinated monetary and fiscal policies; improvements in productivity;
attention to supply augmentation; enhanced public sector role and strengthened competition
policies.
2.1.3 Reducing Poverty and Inequality
The poverty profile measured by head count ratio using the cost of basic needs approach
revealed that 31.5 per cent of the 2010 population, lived below the poverty line. It also indicated
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a 1.8 per cent annual poverty decline between 2005 and 2010. At this rate, the head count ratio
of national poverty will stand at 22.5 per cent of the population in 2015, thereby achieving one
of the major MDGs. The projected higher growth of around 9.2 percent during FY16 and FY21 is
expected to reduce head count poverty rate to about 13.5 percent of 2021 population.
Antipoverty, anti-inequality measures need to target removal or reduction of inequalities in
advancing opportunities for people in different income brackets. This particularly includes
targeting the opening of blocked advancement opportunities for disadvantaged rural and urban
poor people.
2.1.4 Agricultural Development
Agricultural land is limited and is reducing at 1 per cent per annum. Modern methods of
production, including water resource management, high yielding drought and submergence
resistant seeds, increase in land productivity through efficient irrigation, flood control and
drainage, are among the key factors in achieving a higher level of self-sufficiency in food
production to feed the ever increasing population and to save foreign exchange for food imports.
With a view to enhance agriculture production and ensuring food security, the target is that, by
2021, food deficiency will be eliminated and the country will attain self-sufficiency in food
production enabling to meet nutritional requirement of the population.
2.1.5 Remittance Inflows
Besides strengthening our balance of payments position, remittance inflows have had significant
impact on poverty reduction. Remittance inflows in 2011, at $11.5 billion, were about 10 per cent
of GDP. Sustaining the growth of remittance inflows could be a major source of external finance
in the march up to the countrys middle income threshold by 2021. Government is strengthening
institutional arrangements to facilitate remittance. However, increase of remittance flow will
depend on the speed of economic recovery of the labor taking countries.
2.1.6 Foreign Direct Investment
Bangladeshs projected needs for investment in infrastructure for an expanding transport
network and burgeoning urban centers cannot and need not be met from domestic resources
alone. With improved economic management and a highly liberalized investment regime, and
with strategic locational shifts in labor-intensive industries, Bangladesh could become an
attractive destination for private capital flows over the next decade.
2.1.7 ICT and Science and Technology for National Development
The new Science and Technology Policy focuses on scientific research and production using
indigenous resources as much as possible. It focuses on finding solutions to the emerging
problems in agriculture, health, environment and climate change. The new Policy suggested
access to quality educational materials for studying science, mathematics, engineering and other
subjects requiring instruments. To encourage innovation and production of new technology a
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proper institutional system of copyright and patent should be established. In view of the
expanded agenda for research in science and technology, a higher share of GDP will be allocated
for research and development.
2.1.8 E-Governance
Digital democracy is the computerization of political discourse, policy-making and the political
process. It ultimately increases, enhances and deepens citizen participation in government policy
and decision-making processes through electoral campaigns, voting, consultation, public opinion
polling and communication exchange between elected officials and constituents.
2.1.9 Company Productivity
Technology enhances company productivity in multiple ways and the rapid growth of cloudbased computing has reinforced the impact and expanded the possibilities. The early impact of
technology in emerging markets on company productivity was at the basic level of greater PC
usage, office software, and email. The rapid decline in the cost per unit of computing power as
microprocessors become faster and cheaper is growing at an exponential pace as well.
Technology has helped companies improve how they interact with and take feedback from their
customers. The cloud gives companies of any size access to capabilities and services that
previously were available to only the largest enterprises, at a fraction of their historical cost.
2.1.10 Internet Facility
The Internet has become a big leveler allowing small companies to operate on a level playing
field with large ones. The Internet has made it easier for producers to procure inputs (raw
materials) for their production processes and reduced production costs. Price discrimination
(targeting marketing, products, and prices to specific individuals) has been made much easier by
the Internet.
2.1.11 Social Networking
In developed countries, ICT has transformed the print, movie, music, and gaming industries with
an increasing number of consumers now creating their own content through blogs, wikis,
podcasts, Facebook, Instagram, and Vine. Authors can publish their books digitally on Amazon
for a fraction of the cost of using traditional publishers. Musicians and filmmakers likewise have
web-based access to potential customers through YouTube and other online platforms.
2.1.12 Banking sectors
By using various types of ICT services banking sectors of Bangladesh make their task easy in
different sectors that take long time in the past. Now bank can easily transfer money from
anywhere in the country. Now banking system can maintain the database for their clients and
make easy access when it is needed. Also, verify the sign of the accountholders by maintaining
the digital signature of the clients.
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3.1 Improvements from ICT Policy

In 2021, Bangladesh will take its place amongst middle income nations of the world, where
progress is not just reflected in higher living standards but also in a wide range of human
development indicators. And all this will be achieved with the recognition that the state must
play a key role in sustaining economic development. Bangladesh intends to use ICT as the keydriving element for national development.

3.2 ICT and Economic Growth

3.2.1 E-Commerce and online/mobile transactions
Mobile phones and internet have the potential to inter alia expand market access and level the
playing field for small producers. At the same time, consumer prices will be driven down and the
quality will increase due to increased competition. Specific focus on rural e-commerce and lowcost online transactions must be devised and popularized.
3.2.2 No one left behind civil registry and financial inclusion
The vision for Digital Bangladesh is to establish an equitable, inclusive society and economy.
Development of a comprehensive civil registry that is linked to all service delivery by the
government, and preferably also by non-government service providers, will ensure inclusion. A
whole-of-government approach, possibly steered by the Cabinet Division, will be necessary to
establish and use the civil registry across all service delivery organizations. True financial inclusion
mechanisms that provide extremely low-cost mechanisms at citizens doorsteps for banking,
money transfer including safety net payments and local and foreign remittances, credit including
microcredit, insurance including crop, health, life, disaster and other kind, must be formulated
and popularized.
3.2.3 Business productivity
ICTs have proven to increase productivity in virtually all sectors of economy and business ranging
from agriculture, manufacturing and services. Appropriate productivity tools must be adopted
alongside incentives for quick adoption.
3.2.4 Rapid expansion of the IT industry
ICTs hold immense promise for a country like Bangladesh which boasts a booming youth
population, with a sharp interest to learn ICT tools and put them to the purpose of gainful
employment. A collaborative approach is necessary to develop technical and soft skills necessary
for the sector, generate employment for local, foreign and outsourced jobs. Additionally,
establishment of necessary infrastructure, international brand image of the country, and access
to finance for entrepreneurs is required to tap into the imminent demographic dividend.

3.3 ICT and Education

The 6FYP envisaged restructuring the education system to make it more attuned with the
technologically evolving global landscape. The role of ICT in boosting the quality of education
will be emphasized and steps will be taken for narrowing the ICT skills between urban and rural
people. Steps taken for enriching the education system are:
3.3.1 Education quality improvement through IT-enabled learning
All classrooms in primary, secondary, tertiary and professional education must be turned into
multimedia classrooms with appropriate infrastructure consisting of reliable power, high-speed
internet and necessary equipment with teaching staff well equipped to use them to improve
teaching-learning. Massive local content generation must be undertaken through industry
participation and crowd-sourcing of teachers, teacher trainers and learners. MOOCs may become
a viable, low-cost, high-outreach form of educational content delivery which is participatory and
learner-centered.
3.3.2 Teacher empowerment in primary and secondary education
Experiences of introducing technology in education in the world over have produced a consensus
that no amount of technology can replace or marginalize the teachers role. Thus, technology
should be used to empower teachers with on-demand and on-the-job capacity development,
peer collaboration and learning. The Teachers Portal has played a particularly effective role in
developing both collaboration amongst teachers and competition for educational excellence.
Other innovation avenues must be explored to incentivize teachers for modulating their behavior
and preparing them to improve teaching-learning in classrooms.
3.3.3 Strengthening vocational stream
Vocational stream is not attractive for the youth, as was explained earlier in the document.
However, there is a national target to increase enrolment in the vocational stream to 20 per cent
of the entire student cohort. This will require re-branding of the vocational stream in order to
ensure that the curriculum is market-ready, linking graduates to the job market more effectively
and making appropriate use of ICTs for training purposes.
3.3.4 Expanding IT graduate pool
If Bangladesh has to meet the increasing demand of local and outsourced IT jobs in the world,
tertiary educational institutions, industry and the government must work together to rapidly
increase the number of qualified IT graduates who are industry-ready every year. In-house
training may need to be established in companies (perhaps funded by the government) and
accreditation mechanisms must be in place to ensure high quality with regard to the
establishment of a National Certifying Authority.

3.3.5 Building E-learning infrastructure

A model is being implemented meeting two interrelated objectives:
(a) Creation of smart/multimedia classrooms
(b) Training teachers to create digital contents for their use in classrooms.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME)
undertook two initiatives multimedia classroom (MMC) and Teacher-led Digital Content
Development after successful prototypes. Two separate projects under MoE and MoPME are
currently underway aimed at establishing 20,500 MMCs and 7,000 MMCs at the secondary and
primary level respectively. The Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) has set up computer labs in
3,544 educational institutions in order to expand ICT education at the grassroots level.
Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN) has been established in 6 universities and
gradually, all universities will be brought under this network.
3.3.6 Vocational ICT training
Finally, in terms of spurring ICT related vocational training, 4 MMCs in each of 64 Technical School
and College (TSC) have been set up and teachers training is underway for all teachers.
Bangladesh Open University (BoU) has undertaken an initiative to launch e-learning/online
program for its target audiences. Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) is also
set to launch e-learning courses for migrant workers. Under the 7FYP, proposals could be made
to enable delivery of such e-learning courses through Digital Centers which have been established
across rural and urban Bangladesh.

3.4 ICT for Greater Transparency, Good Governance and Improved Public Service
The Perspective Plan stipulates, e-governance will manage the way that citizens deal with the
government and with each other, allow citizens to communicate with government, participate in
government policy making and planning, and to communicate with each other. It articulated
that work flow in government and semi-government offices will be fully integrated with ICTs
through re-engineering of governments business process. There are 23 targets under four
interrelated components of the Digital Government category:
(a) E-Administration - business process re-engineering of government agencies
(b) E-Citizen services - converting traditional service delivery into e-service delivery system to
take service at citizens doorsteps.
(c) An inclusive information and knowledge management system
(d) ICT for equity
As the ensuing discussion reveals, Bangladesh has witnessed significant progress in the area of
Digital Government, although the latest e-Government Development Index (e-GDI) ranking,
prepared by UNDESA, positioned the country low at 148 (UNDESA, 2014). It is, nevertheless, to
be pointed out that in 2012, in spite of Bangladeshs low 150th rank, the country got placed
alongside the US, China, India, Brazil, Japan and other giant economies, i.e., in the category of
10

countries with populations larger than 100 million, that succeeded in making a special effort to
improve service delivery to large swathes of their populations (UNDESA, 2012).

3.5 Resource Mobilization: 7FYP

It is predicted that by 2020, as a result of high internet speed facilitating ICT induced service
delivery, human development and employment opportunities, Bangladeshs GDP will attain an
additional 2.6 per cent of growth. The sources of this additional growth is directly attributable to
the IT/ITES industry and indirectly through service delivery reforms, which will allow citizens to
be more productive as a result of increased predictability, transparency and accountability in
public service delivery.
The strategy of developing the ICT sector is to reduce investment risk and strengthen market
forces in order to increase productivity and efficiency of all conceivable governance activities and
wealth creation sectors of the nation. To ensure inclusive growth, public investment is only
recommended to deal with market failure which inhibits delivering ICT benefits to those market
segments, where profitable private investment is not feasible for the time being.

3.6 Enabling Environment

3.6.1 Reliable and secure infrastructure
ICTs require reliable infrastructure consisting of power, high-speed internet connection and
appropriate equipment - at a minimum to be functional. When service delivery and businesses
become dependent on ICTs, this reliance is paramount and unavoidable leading to the
requirement that the infrastructure needs to be ubiquitous. This means that redundant
infrastructure must be ensured in all service delivery and business organizations that have
adopted ICT-based service delivery. Information security becomes a critical priority of the
government with appropriate measures in place to prevent against cyber-attacks which will be
increasingly common with citizens identity and financial information becoming increasingly
online. The country will need to build international alliance for software infrastructure from open
source and proprietary technologies. These are elaborated in section.
3.6.2 Policy and legal framework and whole-of-government approach
An innovation may start with experimentation but there is no getting around to the fact that
policy framework, and often legislation, is necessary to scale up innovation. Institutionalization
of an innovation almost always requires policy and/or legal reform. Years of e-Governance
investment has been known to fail globally because required policy and legal safeguards were
not developed to institutionalize the new ways of doing old things. The countrys ICT Policy and
ICT Act only facilitate certain fundamental issues regarding ICTs. In order to scale up and
institutionalize ICT-based service delivery, administration, business productivity, a number of
policy and legal reform may be necessary by sectoral ministries ranging from Cabinet Division,

11

Ministry of Public Administration, Law, Education, Health, Agriculture, Banking, Election

Commission, etc.
3.6.3 Financing
Making Digital Bangladesh a reality will ultimately require undertaking of large investments.
However, it is possible to mobilize finances in a flexible way. The ICT Policy allows the provision
for a percentage of the revenue budget and development budget to be used for ICT-based
expenditures. Many large projects have ICT components which can be more effectively designed
and sourced often by pooling funds or sharing plans and activities. Mechanisms may be devised
for a whole-of-government approach in ICT implementation especially when connectivity,
hardware and software infrastructure components are concerned. Since a large portion of ICT
activities are funded by development partners, more aid effectiveness can be obtained by
coordinating across development partners as well. Lastly, private investment can be mobilized
directly or in the form of universal obligation funds. For ICT industry entrepreneurs, special
investment funds need to be set up. Mechanisms for valuation of intellectual property are a high
priority for the industry.
3.6.4 Partnerships
For both service delivery and industry development, partnerships within the government, with
non-state and global actors, can be of high value at least in terms of resource mobilization. There
is a great value to be gained by striking partnerships across government organizations:
infrastructure sharing, expertise sharing, complementary implementation, etc. Partnership with
private sector may bring in private investment through PPP arrangement where the risk is shared
across the partners. Partnership with reputable international companies has the additional
benefit of developing the brand image of Bangladesh.

3.7 Enabling E-Governance

The increasing role of ICTs in accelerating delivery of public service is running parallel to the
growing demands for transparency and accountability in all regions of the world. E-Governance
attempts to deal with two interrelated and mutually exclusive objectives
(a) Internal, focusing on processes (operations)
(b) External, fulfilling peoples needs and expectations by simplifying processes
The concept of e-governance epitomizes horizontal and vertical connectivity by providing a
virtual, yet, de jure platform for streamlining government-to-government (G2G), and G2C/C2G
interactions, respectively (business-to-government (B2G) and vice versa, i.e., G2B interactions).

12

3.8 Key projects of ICT policies are shown below

Union information centers by ministry of ICT A2I
500 UISC has been established
by 2012. Run on a PPP
operational model

Provided with means of ICT facilities

Loyal youths are operating

these centers with Govt
support. Women participation
is increasing.

ICT facility in rural postal offices

E-centers in 8500 rural post
offices within 2015

These e-centers would be equipped

with desktop pcs, laptop, printers &
others ICT facilities with internet
connectivity
Assembling of low cost laptop & fiber optic
Started from 2010, producing
Primarily the educational institutes &
03 models of laptops.
govt agencies are supplied.
Computer facility in schools
2100 secondary schools are
Thousands of teachers of these
provided with multimedia
schools are rained on computer skill &
classrooms. Others thousands contents.
are provided with computer
labs with internet
connectivity.
Projects undertaken by other ministries & governmental agencies
Local govt ministry is
Ministry of health is working to
developing infrastructure
connect health complexes with video
(building, rooms in union
conference facility, especially for rural
offices) in remote
complexes.
administrative units.

Rural people have more

attachment to these post
offices than any other ICT
facility
Expanded the capacity to
other IT equipment

Approved projects to
implement the theme
connect a school, connect a
community.

ICT ministry has connected all

district commissioners office
with a secured network.
Extending this project connect
other govt offices.

It is to be highlighted here that 41 indicators, cutting across global and national domains, are
proposed to incorporate the gender perspective of Digital Bangladesh. The proposed set of
indicators will not only aid to fill this critical void but more pertinently, allow making necessary
policy reforms and adjustments to capitalize on any particular momentum. For instance, the 318
action items pertaining to gender priorities under ICT Policy 2009 could be reviewed through
these indicators. At the same time, efforts should be made to make sure that the progress
achieved in Bangladesh is comparable to others in the world so that the country can further build
its ITES image and also emerge as a role model for implementing e-governance reforms in
revamping traditional public service delivery processes.

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4.1 Limitations in ICT Policy

Although the Government of Bangladesh is committed to implementing ICT, the process is
hindered by a number of limitations. The limitations are categorized as external or internal.
External limitations include lack of equipment, unreliability of equipment, lack of technical
support and other resource-related issues. How these external and internal limitations negatively
influence the use of ICT are described below.
4.1.1 ICT Supported Infrastructure and Lack of Resources
Bangladesh is one of the developing countries that lack the resources and appropriate
infrastructure for implementing ICT. The effective use of ICT would require the availability of
equipment, supplies of computers and their proper maintenance including other accessories.
Most of the rural areas in Bangladesh do not have electricity and therefore one cannot even run
a computer in the first place. On the other hand most of the cities of Bangladesh lack continuous
of electric supply. The development of the ICT infrastructure in a country is dependent on the
availability of a reliable electricity supply. Implementing ICT demands other resources, such as
computers, printers, multimedia projectors, scanners, etc - which are not available in all
institutions. Besides, ICT requires up-to-date hardware and software.
4.1.2 Insufficient Funds
Effective implementation of technology involves substantial funding, that is very hard to manage
in developing countries like Bangladesh, where many people are living below the international
poverty line. ICT-supported hardware, software, internet, audio visual aids, teaching aids and
other accessories demand huge funds. The lack of funds to obtain the necessary hardware and
software is one of the reasons people do not use technology in their daily usages. Efficient and
effective use of technology depends on the availability of hardware and software and the equity
of access to resources. These costs are in most cases inflated and cannot be provided by most
developing countries, including Bangladesh.
4.1.3 Costly Internet Connection
The Internet usage in the country is very limited and confined to cities, and the costs are high but
the speed is not satisfactory. The bandwidth fee for the Internet is around US$250, which is
considered high in terms of socio-economic condition of the operators and users. The current
state of access to ICTs (below in text box) in Bangladesh clearly reveals the poor condition in the
internet connection.
4.1.4 Technical Condition of Government
The technical conditions to support e-Government initiatives in Bangladesh seem very poor as
the initiatives to e-Government, especially, offering e-services to the citizen is scattered, and so
far there exists no integrated and sustainable services. A study reveals that lack of internet access
and sustainability of e-services, top-level management initiatives, technical integration and
interoperability and budget and finance are hurdles to overcome on the way to introducing and
practicing e-Government in Bangladesh. In any e-Government services, access to ICTs is the key
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factors in all respects, but the condition and scope of accessing ICTs in Bangladesh is very poor
and in some cases problematic.
4.1.5 Social and Cultural Factors
Half of the population of Bangladesh are women who are relatively deprived of access to the
advantages of technology. Women are underrepresented in almost every aspect of ICT
implementation in Bangladesh. One of the most significant social factors influencing the use of
ICT in Bangladesh is the low social status of women and hence the use of ICT to women is not
considered important. Women are supposed to be primarily the caretakers of family and
children. Men disproportionately occupy academic, management and technical roles, which by
virtue of the nature of the work provide easier access to the internet and related technology.
Even if women have the necessary hardware and software, they may find little time to use them
due to being busy with domestic chores.
4.1.6 Political Factors
One of the most notable of the limitations to the use of ICT in developing countries seems to be
the political will of the people in the corridors of power. The allocation of sufficient funds for ICT
does not seem to be very attractive to the leaders. It can be seen from the budgetary allocations
in third world countries that greater allocations may be for the defense forces rather than on ICT.
If the political leaders favor the technology, it will bloom. The new Government of Bangladesh
came with Bangladesh as a digitalized one in all sectors. Hence they are also trying to implement
information technologies in education as well. Unfortunately if this political government will
change after five years due to the democratic election then Vision 2021 might be changed due
to antagonistic attitudes among the political parties of Bangladesh.
4.1.7 Corruption
The situation in Bangladesh represents a distinct case where corruption has found a remarkably
safe space in which to proliferate, despite the vigilance of control mechanisms. Corruption is so
pervasive that it has evoked widespread condemnation, both inside and outside the country.
Consequently, Bangladesh has been consistently ranked by Transparency International as one of
the most venal among the researched countries. As a result, corruption can be identified as one
of the strong barriers to the implementation of ICT. The misuse of government funds which could
have been used to develop other sectors like the integration of ICT is channeled in other
directions i.e. few people benefit from those funds by pocketing all the money. Huge budgets are
passed to buy modern teaching and learning materials for the improvement of the teaching and
learning process, but in the end only minor improvements are found in the overall technical and
vocational sector.
4.1.8 Lack of Time
Bangladesh, a developing country, has a shortage of teachers, and they are already burdened
with heavy workload. Some of the institutions have already introduced two shifts, without
increasing the number of teaches. So teachers' teaching load has been increased due to
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conducting classes in both the shifts. Moreover, most of the teachers are also responsible for
administrative tasks. In these circumstances teachers dont have time to design, develop and
incorporate technology into the teaching learning situation. Teachers need time to learn how to
use the hardware and software, time to plan, and time to collaborate with other teachers. Some
teachers are unable to make appropriate use of technology in their own classrooms, while others
are unwilling to try because of anxiety, lack of interest, or lack of motivation.
4.1.9 Lack of Knowledge and Skill
Teachers lack of knowledge and skills is one of the main hindrances to the use of ICT in education
both for the developed and underdeveloped countries. Integrating technology in the curriculum
requires knowledge of the subject area, an understanding of how students learn and a level of
technical expertise. Lack of knowledge regarding the use of ICT and lack of skill on ICT tools and
software have also limited the use of ICT tools in teaching learning situation in Bangladesh.

5.1 Suggestions
As Bangladesh proceeds boldly to implement its ambitious and yet achievable Digital Bangladesh
Vision 2021 priorities, it faces several challenges. These are precisely the areas where the
government needs to work with the development partners to gather international best practices,
transfer technology and knowhow to the government, and build institutional capacity. It must be
realized by both the government and the development partners that ICTs have emerged as a nonthreatening approach to catalyze, not force, administrative reform through various productivity
enhancement tools and knowledge management platforms, but most importantly, by providing
a natural vehicle for re-engineering business processes both for service delivery and for
administrative decision making.
Elimination of the digital divide between rural and urban areas and between Bangladesh and
other nations is essential in order to be at par with middle-income nations. A peaceful political
environment is essential for intellectual, social, cultural and economic development. Time and
time again, the nation's dream for Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh has been shattered by the
turbulent political situation. The country dearly needs a tranquil political environment for the
development of all sectors, including ICT, and for the realisation of Vision 2021 and Digital
Bangladesh. Suggestion that I mostly recommend from my point of view are:
5.1.1 Human resource development
The policy makers in Bangladesh have woken up to the reality that humanware is far more
important than hardware and software to realize the Digital Bangladesh vision. The HRD
challenge appear in different forms: first, the service providers especially the government must
be much more aware of the service delivery options and benefits ICTs present; second, the
government officials must embrace ICTs in their day to day work the younger officers seem
must more amenable to developing an ICT work culture; third, the general literacy of the
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population being less than 50% presents a significant challenge in adoption of computer
technologies.
5.1.2 Financial allocation and institutional capacity
The still lacking institutional capacity to identify, design and manage ICT-based projects within
the government deters the policy makers to allocate significant budgets that would be required
to implement Digital Bangladesh. Some of the demonstration initiatives called Quick Wins
facilitated by the Access to Information (A2I) programme and other programmes such as
Managing at the Top (MATT-2) are recently creating an appetite for calculated risk-taking for
larger ICT-based projects within the civil service. Institutional capacity must be enhanced to
formulate conducive policies and procedures as well.
5.1.3 Affordable Connectivity
The cost of internet connectivity is still one of the highest in the region and is well below the
affordability of the common citizen. Broadband access is still in its infancy because of lacking last
mile connectivity and high cost of access. Development of a policy for Universal Service Fund is
still an area of exploration.
5.1.4 Locally relevant and local language content
The new media and internet open up the user to a world of information and knowledge, but
unfortunately, very little is in the native language and much of the content is not locally relevant,
contextually meaningful or culturally sensitive to the teeming millions.
5.1.5 Public-Private Partnerships framework
It is seen that ICT projects especially e-governance or e-service delivery projects tend to sustain
themselves much better when the private sector takes a financial stake. Such public-private
partnerships minimizes risk on the government side and creates natural incentives on the private
side to ensure the quality of service and responsiveness to citizens. A PPP framework that
complies with Public Procurement Rules 2008 to accommodate ICT projects is still very much in
its infancy.
5.1.6 Reliable and continuous power
The country currently suffers from a chronic shortage of about 1,500 MW of power. In locations
of the country, power is not available when it is needed to conduct a digital porgramme such as
during office or school hours. With Digital Bangladesh implementation, this shortage will one
hand impede progress of digitalization, and on the other, will make the power shortage more
acute unless power generation can be boosted in the short term.

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5.1.7 Legal reform for businesses and consumers

ICT-based service delivery requires modifications to many existing laws. Several development
partners are already working on legal reform. Such effort may be linked to the reform
necessitated by Digital Bangladesh efforts for larger impact.
5.1.8 Branding Bangladesh as a software/ITES outsourcing destination
For international market access for export focused software/ITES companies, linkage is a critical
factor, rather than presence of a potential market. It has been found that NRBs (Non Resident
Bangladeshis) have played a significant role in creating that linkage. In majority of cases with
respect to successful export in key markets, particularly in USA, Japan and Australia, the NRB
entrepreneurs have played the main role in creating market access. However, this linkage
remains person dependent and very small at a national level. With national sponsorship,
involvement of selected international missions, and a high-level committee to market the
country, a national momentum for country branding is very possible.

Conclusion
The main vision of the policy is to promotion and multipurpose use of ICT to ensure transparency
and accountability of the government, human resources development, ensure public services
through public and private sector participation and achieve national development goals by 2021.
The policy has 10 special objectives, 56 strategic themes and 306 action programs which will be
implemented by different organizations under short, medium and long term timeframe by 2016,
2018 and 2021.
A dependable information system is essential for efficient management and operation of the
public and private sectors. But there is a shortage of locally generated information needed for
efficient performance of these sectors. In order to meet this objective, ICT used in every sector
shall have to be accelerated in terms of information generation, utilization and applications.
Considering the gravity and importance of ICT Honorable Prime Minister has already declared ICT
as the thrust sector. Over the last few years, many nations have taken advantage of the
opportunities afforded by ICT within a policy framework, laid down guidelines and proceed with
the formulation of a national ICT strategy as a part of the overall national development plan.
Bangladesh intends to use ICT as the key-driving element for socio-economic development.
Thus in 2021, Bangladesh will take its place amongst middle income nations of the world, where
progress is not just reflected in higher living standards but also in a wide range of human
development indicators. And all this will be achieved with the recognition that the state must
play a key role in sustaining economic development.

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Reference
Hasanuzzaman Zaman and Rokonuzzaman (2014) Achieving Digital Bangladesh by 2021 And
Beyond
Basu, S. (2004). E-government and Developing Countries: An Overview. International Review
of Law Computers and Technology
The Daily Star - Lutfar Rahman (2015) Digital Bangladesh: Dreams and reality
Available at: http://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/24th-anniversary-the-daily-star-part1/digital-bangladesh-dreams-and-reality-73118
Bangladesh ICT Forum (2012) National ICT Policy-2009 of Bangladesh
Available at: https://bdictforum.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/national-ict-policy-2009-ofbangladesh/
Shahiduzzaman Khan, (2004), Bangladesh: Ensuring transparency and accountability
Available at: http://ifg.cc/en/current/news/regions/281-bd-bangladesch-bangladesh/6507bangladesh-ensuring-transparency-and-accountability
Bangladesh Cabinet (2015) Bangladesh Cabinet approved National ICT Draft Policy 2015
Available at: http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/bangladesh-cabinet-approvednational-ict-draft-policy-2015-1423059006-1
Md. Abdul Karim, Principal Secretary (2014) Digital Bangladesh for Good governance

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