Bangladesh ICT Policy Framework Geared to Economic Growth and Fulfilling the MDG

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Bangladesh ICT Policy Framework Geared to
Economic Growthand Fulfilling the MDG

• Abdul Moyeen Khan, MP, D Phil (Sussex)
• Minister for
• Science and Information Communication
  Technology
• Bangladesh
• Global ICT Summit 2004
• Baku, Azarbaijan 26 November 2004

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(No Transcript)
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Country Profile - Bangladesh

• 1. Geographical location 20 º 24/ - 26
  º 38/ N
• 2. Population 131.1 Million
• 3. Population density about 880/ sq. Km.
• 4. Population Growth Rate 1.48
  
• 5. Male-Female Ratio 03.8
• 6. Crude Death Rate (per 1000 pop) 3.70
  
• 7. Expectancy of Life 68Male69
  Female
• 8. GDP Growth rate 5.2
• 9. Per capita GDP About USD 346

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Telecom Infrastructure in Bangladesh

• Fixed line Telephone 0.76 Million (Public
  Sector)
• Mobile Telephone 1.60 Million (Private
  Sector), most of these are
• not
  interconnected with fixed line phone.
• Teledensity 0.83 line per
  100 people (4.38 in India, 7.99
  in Sri Lanka, 2.89 in Pakistan and Nepal)
• International Trunk Exchange 02 (Under BTTB)
• International Voice Circuit 5100(Under
  BTTB)
• Number of VSAT User 67
• Number of VSAT Hub 04
• Ground Satellite Station 04
• Fibre Optic Network 1800 KM under Railways,
  2000 KM under construction (BTTB)
• Submarine Cable At present nil, recently joined
  SEA-ME-WE-4 Consortium, will be connected in July
  2005, it will be built using Dense Wavelength
  Division Multiplex (DWDM) with 1.28 terabits per
  second speed.
• Next 5 year demand for fixed line phone 3.5
  Million
• Recently fixed line phone sector has been opened
  for private sector investment.

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Internet in Bangladesh

• PC Penetration rate 1.5 Sets /1000 Peoples
• International Internet Backbone 10 MB
• Number of ISPs 152
• First ISP Introduced in 1996
• ISP Subscriber
  80,000
• Number of Internet Connections 0.082 Million
• 4.5 sets in India, 4.2 sets in Pakistan, 7.1
  sets in Sri Lanka, 390.2 sets in Japan.

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Internet in rural areas

• 39000 phone ladies in 28000
• villages providing tele access to
  Private Sector Mobile
• 50 million people. Tele Coverage
• Grameen communication (ISP)
• Village e-mail Services
• Village internet Program
• Village cyber kiosk
• www.grameen-info.org/gc
• Grameen Shakti (ISP)
• Village e-mail Services
• Village internet Program
• Solar power computers
• www.gshakti.com

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Bangladeshs Software Industry
Bangladesh India
U.S.A Programmers (Per month) US 400
to 800 US 1,200 US 4,500 Data Entry (Per
10000 key strokes) US 3 to 5
US 10 US 30 to 50
Bangladesh offers a very attractive low wage level
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Background of thePOLICY REGIME

• In contrast to the post industrial revolution
  scenario, the 21stcentury and the new millennium
  is ushering in a knowledge base society in the
  world. For the first time rapid advances in ICT
  promise to enhance the living standards of the
  people of developing countries and act as the
  engine for ensuring sustainable growth of our
  economies in the real sense of the term.

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THE STRATEGY Bangladesh is striving to create
an environment that promote rapid dissemination
of ICT at all levels of Society. To attain that
objective and confirming with the Millennium
Development Goals, the government of Bangladesh
has undertaken ambitious programs to create ICT
skilled manpower and build an infrastructure even
in the country side. Bangladesh is pursuing a
private sector led growth strategy for the
development country. The Government has recently
liberalized the trade regime, investment
environment as well as other macro-economic
policies and had provided attractive packages of
incentive towards encouraging FDI in the country,
coupled with the formulation of an comprehensive
National Policy on ICT which already envisages
the basic concepts of the Declaration of the
Principles and the program of Action being
considered for adoption at the WSIS, Geneva. We
consider the ICT infrastructure to be one of the
most important prerequisites for a dynamic and
efficient private sector.
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POLICY REGIME contd.
While information is considered to be power in
this new century in addition to the concept of
Knowledge is power, reaching it to the people
through an efficient telecommunication media is
of strategic importance for any country. We
consider the development of telecom
infrastructure and services as the most important
tool for the development of ICT in the country.
While these objectives, the Government of
Bangladesh has declared ICT as a thrust sector
of our economy and has taken up multiple
programmes to harness the benefits of ICT by the
way of promoting special ICT Scholarships for
girls, ICT internship for the young graduate, ICT
incubator, High Tech Park and setting up of ICT
Training Institutes all arround the countryside.
An ICT Task force has also been created with our
Honourable Prime Minister as its Chairperson in
order to provide ICT sector the desired momentum
to go forward. More importantly, ICT is being
used as tool a tool for good governance towards
creating a responsive government enshrining our
commitment to create a liberal democratic society
towards the welfare of our people.
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Vision Objectives

• The Policy aims at building an ICT driven
  Nation comprising of a knowledge based society.
• Facilitate use of ICT
• Develop pool of ICT Professionals
• Promote use of ICT for Job Creation Poverty
  Alleviation
• Provide Incentives for ICT Development
• Develop ICT infrastructures in urban rural
  areas
• Set up national data Base
• Establish Legislative Regulatory Framework

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Human Resource Development

• Create School on line for 20000 odd secondary
  schools over the rural countryside
• ICT Centres all over the country for young
  trainees
• MMC to promote comprehension adaptability
• Internet access all over the country
• High Quality Training through Public Private
  Universities
• Training of Trainers Teachers all over the
  country

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Problems in ICT Infrastructure Capacity
Building

• Fund constraints
• Lack of trained manpower
• Lack of modern laboratory facility
• Difficulty in transferring products from
• the lab tops to shop shelves

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PROMOTE COMMERCE INDUSTRY

• Already Set up an ICT INCUBATOR with 70000 sq ft
  of work space under one roof in the heart of the
  city. With uninterrupted power supply and high
  speed connectivity.
• Already initiated a Hi Tech Park on an area of
  232 acres 25 Kilometres north of the capital city
  with excellent communication facilities.
• Already set up Equity Fund Venture Funds
  totalling US 50 Million

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e-Governance Democracy

• Improve Efficiency of Government
• Ensure Transparency of Government
• Ensure Accountability of Government
• Networking the Government
• Creation of Local Government connectivity with
  Central Government

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Promote Investment

• ICT declared thrust area in National Export
  Import Policy
• Seven Years tax holiday for FDI
• Repatriation of Profit in Foreign Exchange

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Bangladesh Development Gateway where worlds of
knowledge meet.

• Operation began in July 2001
• Set up a national ICT highway in collaboration
  with DGF for information sharing and
  dissemination with in and outside the country.
• To develop an effective, user friendly and self
  sustaining global network country portal fro ICT
• website www.bangladeshgateway.org

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ICT in Bangladesh An Evaluation
Let me give you an example. Bangladesh.
Minister of Science and ICT, Dr. Abdul Moyeen
Khan, putting all government services on-line
E-government, e-business. But more importantly,
.determined to make sure that every town and
village in Bangladesh has access to the
Internet. The opportunity to transport knowledge
to the poorest Bangladeshi citizens equally,
efficiently and fairly a major step forward
for a nation trying to develop, and it applies
around the world..
Colin L. Powell, Secretary of State, USA - June
22, 2003
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CONCLUSION

• There remains some complex delicate ethical
  issues which are not yet well understood by us
  yrt in the developing countries, perhaps not even
  in the developed countries. Nonetheless, these
  open ended questions can perhaps be best resolved
  if we as scientists try to make sure that the
  ulterior objectives for all such noble exercises
  is geared towards our cherished vision which is
  the welfare of the people at large, aimed at
  removing the science technology divide
  between the rich and the poor, the north and the
  south and the west and the east

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• Thank You