Driving towards a digital society

Shafiul Alam
What Mohammad Mashiur Rahman, Programmer of the Implementation Monitoring and Ev
aluation Division (IMED), explained about the necessity of the Digital Innovatio
n Fair 2010, was shared by others who gathered there from the government side fo
r three days from March 4 up to 6, 2010.
Mashiur told this scribe that people were not well informed of all services gove
rnment provides for them. The Digital Innovation Fair has served the purpose of
informing the people what type of services they can get from what kind of office
s of the government. From that perspective, this fair is important and it is nec
essary for developing the information structure.
Regarding the services of IMED, he said the division, among other activities, mo
nitors and evaluates the implementation of the projects included in the Annual D
evelopment Programme (ADP). The users can get any information from the website o
f the IMED. He pointed out that such fair should be held every year. People shou
ld be provided with high-speed internet connectivity and uninterrupted electrici
ty to fulfill the vision for building a digital society. And the services should
also be made available and affordable to them. People are still dependent on th
e mobile phone.
"Service at Doorsteps" was the slogan of the digital innovation fair that drew h
uge crowd and evoked much interest and enthusiasm among the visitors and the gov
ernment employees as well.
Asked what will be the impact and benefit of this fair, Mohamed A Mansur, Nation
al Consultant for electronic government procurement (e-GP) at the Central procur
ement Technical Unit said that people, particularly those involved in tender pro
cess can learn from our demonstration here how they can submit tender electronic
ally and where they can get tender related information. The CPTU website has bee
n enhanced and it now caters to the needs of the stakeholders of public procurem
ent.
The digital fair as the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina described at the opening wa
s aimed at displaying the government services through the means of Information a
nd Communication Technology (ICT). She expressed the strong desire of her govern
ment to reduce corruption and other hassles in the delivery of public services b
y enabling the offices with ICT. The PM requested all the public servants to cha
nge their mind-set and let the people think that they should not move from door
to door for services, rather the services will be made available to them through
the introduction of the ICT culture and practices.
What really deserves appreciation is the participation of the private sector ICT
-related service providers including the print and the electronic media. This is
a unique expression of the government to build a partnership culture between th
e public and the private sector institutions.
Organized jointly by the Access to Information Project (A2I) supported by the UN
DP under the Prime Minster's Office and the Ministry of Science and Information
Communication Technology, the first ever digital innovation fair showcased ICT a
ctivities of all ministries of the government at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman Novo Theatre at Bijoy Sarani in the capital city. The ministries and divi
sions of the government had 82 stalls and 20 ones were set up by five private or
ganizations. Apart from that, the media houses also had their stalls in the fair
. All of them tried to let the people know what they can and have innovated digi
tally to reach the target of building a Digital Bangladesh by 2021.
Asaduzzaman, a public relations executive of the private telecom operator Warid,
observed that the effectiveness of the fair depends on the level of communicati
on about it to the people. "The main purpose of the fair is to let people know h
ow much our technology and IT have advanced and what are the new in this area. T
o materialize the vision for digital Bangladesh, the technology and services sho
uld be available and affordable to the people," he noted.
The prime Minister herself is serious about this and it was reflected in her que
ry at our stall about the information of the remote places on website, said Shak
ib Ahmed, System Analyst, Assistance to SICT Project of UNDP at the Planning Div
ision. He mentioned that the ministries have many services of their own and thos
e are scattered. This fair has provided a common platform where sharing of infor
mation and resources have been possible. Also, it has created a sense of competi
tion among the ministries that what technology they have and where they are lack
ing. So the fair will create a multiple impact. We will have the benefit of digi
tal process after 2013 when all upazilla will come under fiber optic network.
Zillur Rahman, Director at the Export Promotion Bureau under the ministry of com
merce, explained how they have developed the services for video conferencing wit
h the foreign buyers. Tasdiq Ahmed, program specialist (ICT) of CDMP showed how
early warning on the disaster can be received through SMS. He said it will be re
ally a digital service if people need not move physically. Until now one has to
move at a stage of e-communication for payment. This should also be removed thro
ugh operationalizing the e-payment or e-transaction system. Although the process
has started, it should be fully in operation for materializing the vision for d
igital Bangladesh. Dewan MD Reza of Dhaka Education Board said people do not kno
w that we have so many electronic services. So this type of fair should continue
and it should be held outside Dhaka also.
Rashed, a visitor from Mirpur said: "We should appreciate the services that we c
an now pay all utility bills through mobile phones, buy railway tickets online,
know SSC, HSC results through SMS and do many more things by dint of technology
today. There is no scope to lag behind. We must keep pace with the global scenar
io." From that perspective, this fair and subsequent activities will drive the c
ountry towards a digital society, he added.
One of the visitors complained of sound pollution in the fair and said if there
is such a noise then how can we learn about the services here. Another visitor a
ppreciated the idea and said there is a need for change in the mind-set of the g
overnment employees and the people as well. He said making people hostage by blo
cking the files has long been a culture in the public sector. The government can
change it by introducing the digital culture. But at the same time it has to ad
dress the problems of the employees and other reasons as to why the red tape has
ruled the roost.
Shafiul Alam is a
communication specialist.
He can be reached at e-mail:
shafiul_1966@yahoo.com