It is ironical to note that the term "Digital Bangladesh" still remains a misunderstood concept to many. Due to the strong desire of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the vision has been accepted with interest in the government, the private sector as well as the political sphere. If I have not misunderstood Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, by using the term Digital Bangladesh -- she emphasized on using ICT in Governance and service delivery organs both in the public and private sector.

1. Digital Bangladesh for Coping with globalisation

The forces of globalisation and technology are continuously reshaping our economy. The impact of information and communication technology (ICT) is giving rise to a new type of economy- the knowledge-based economy. Technology has had a crucial role in defining today's globalised market structure. In this context, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken the first step by declaring her vision for a "Digital Bangladesh". Despite the fact that, many still consider this to be the dream of a prime minister, while others think the concept is yet vague for consumption of our mass people, I believe Bangladesh can make steady strides towards digitalisation if guided by strategists capable of formulating short-term, mid-term & long-term planning for the digitalisation process. In the light of our previous lesson, the concept of "Digital Bangladesh" must be understood clearly, practically and pragmatically in the context of an economy like Bangladesh . It is necessary to mention that in the short run, "Digital Bangladesh" aims at E-Governance and service delivery through utilizing ICT. But the vision "Digital Bangladesh" encompasses the whole arena of a knowledge-based digital economy.

Bangladesh can't afford to achieve that goal in the short or medium-term. I invite thinkers, technocrats and IT experts to focus on the short-run issues and measures the present government should undertake to digitalise Bangladesh. It is important to start digitalising service delivery organs like the police force, city corporation, Land Department, Tax Department, PDB, Water supply, gas and other authorities, including sectors like Banking, Insurance, Customs, Tax Collection. Urgent steps should be taken to digitalise institutions like Bangladesh Bank, NBR, PSC, UGC, EC, ACC and other vital institutions to go forward towards good governance.

2. Phasing out the Digitalisation Process

What is important for the planner is the ability to explore all the possibilities of phasing out a digitalisation process for Bangladesh. We can share the experience of developing & neighbouring countries. India has made giant steps towards acquiring competence in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The success story of the Indian IT industry bears testimony to this. However, technical competence is a pre-requisite for digitalisation of the Bangladesh economy.

Everybody knows information technology reduces costs, saves time, improves efficiency, raises comfort levels and increases the confidence of citizens. Hence, developing countries such as Bangladesh should leverage the power of IT to leapfrog poverty barriers, and promote economic and social development. But we have to keep in mind that technology alone won't fix or alleviate poverty levels in an economy, nor guarantee dynamic service delivery to citizens. It is important to understand that ICT facilitates good governance but ICT itself doesn't guarantee good governance.

3. Slow Paced IT revolution and the Digital Divide

Even with the slow paced IT revolution in Bangladesh, around 50% or more of our villages are still without telephones. Seventy-five percent or more of our population resides in the rural areas and does not have adequate exposure to technology. A vast majority lives below the poverty line and 35% or more are illiterate. Like any other developing country, a vast majority of Bangladesh's population will be vulnerable to the risk of getting marginalised in the IT revolution. Logically citizens will be getting divided into people who do and people who don't have access to ICT and the capability to use modern information technology.

This divide exists and shall continue to exist between the cities and rural areas, between the rich and the poor, and between the educated and uneducated.

4. Digital Bangladesh - the misconception

Digital Bangladesh does not necessarily mean one man-one computer. For the near future, neither does it mean internet literacy for 100% of the population. But it indicates networking within all administrative units like Upazilas, Districts and Divisions. It definitely means bringing more citizens to the Information Highway- giving a bigger mass of the population access to information. Digital Bangladesh should be the first step towards the death of distance, particularly for the rural people with the secretariat or any other powerhouse with whom the citizens are involved for governance.

However, we have to keep in mind the following assumptions:

i) Bringing 17 crore citizens (approx) on to the information highway will not be easy.

ii) Bringing the whole public sector under a network will not be easy.

iii) Bringing economic units of private sector under a common platform will not be easy.

The aim of digitalisation in the first phase should be:

i) Ensure easier access to government forms and documents by citizens.

ii) Ensure submission of applications, forms, and complaints electronically.

iii) Ensure greater access to information by citizens charter and websites.

iv) Ensure University admissions process to be digitalised except the admission test.

v) Ensure greater connectivity by wireless internet.

5. Digitalisation Process - Identifying Priority Sectors

Sustainable progress can be achieved, only if we bring the vast majority of Bangladesh rural people on the information highway, and thus, benefit from the increased productivity that information and communication technology offers. The anytime-anywhere and death of- distance paradigms of technology will enable better leveraging of scarce resources such as healthcare and education, agriculture and other service delivery organizations.

To create ownership of digital Bangladesh by the general public it should focus in promoting the following broad areas:

i) Health

ii) Education

iii) Agriculture

iv) Other Service Delivery Organizations

To enhance citizens' participation and promote accountability, transparency and efficiency in governance process.

i) Health

In Bangladesh, 51% of the population does not have access to essential drugs. Furthermore, there are only 26 physicians per 100,000 population compared to 279 for the US and 162 for China. ICT can help bring medical expertise to Upazila and District headquarters. Tele-medicine, for instance may link healthcare centres in remote locations, through satellites, with super speciality hospitals at major towns / cities. Thus it can bring connectivity between patients at remote end, with specialist doctors, for medical consultations and treatment. For example, a few healthcare centres in Bangladesh use tele-medicine to bring health-care facilities from super-speciality centre abroad.

ii) Education

Distance education has tremendous potential to spread learning in any country. E-learning is a cost-effective way of providing education at a distance. This is especially important considering that around 80% of our illiterate population are from the rural areas.

In this context, it is essential that the government, industry, NGOs and academia form partnerships to accelerate the digitalisation process. Together, they need to create an "enabling environment" for the proliferation of ICT in Bangladesh. There are some basic steps that Bangladesh needs to foster online education to be offered by Open University and our National University.

iii) Agriculture

Since more than half of our population is employed in agriculture, our planners should put ICT to good use in agriculture. For example, India has led the use of remote sensing satellite information for locating irrigation projects. The Internet has been effectively used in some of the villages to ensure effective dissemination of agricultural commodity price information. The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in India has used IT effectively, to enhance competitiveness of the dairy industry and to provide benefits to the rural masses. Towards digital Bangladesh, we can use the Indian experience of using ICT in different sectors of agriculture.

iv) Other Service Delivery Organization

In the public sector, ICT can be used for more efficient governance. In a developing country like Bangladesh, there is a significant need for introducing transparency and efficiency in government operations. Through E-governance, the service delivery organization can effectively deliver their service to citizens. By separating the delivery of services from decision-making, the chances of corruption are reduced. Further, e-governance reduces the time in interactions with the government. For instance, the Internet can be used as a cheap communication channel that governments can use to reach out to their citizens and vice versa. For instance, citizens can monitor the progress of various government initiatives online.

ICT also enables effective planning. Simulation can be used as a good tool for what-if analysis. It helps the citizens understand the parameters of public systems (over a period of time) like pollution levels, provision of basic infrastructure - schools, water, electricity, health care, commuting times, etc.

6. Increased Connectivity

An important step is to improve connectivity. With a PC density of 2.9 per 1,000 population and a tele-density of 32 fixed lines per 1,000 population, Bangladesh needs to increase penetration in terms of PCs and communication lines. Connectivity options to the rural areas can be improved, by using wireless access. In addition, Cyber cafes in the urban centres and village information kiosks in the rural areas will enhance IT access throughout the country.

The high cost of IT equipment accessories which acts a barrier towards proliferation of IT access needs to be lowered. Due to high tariff levels, the cost of hardware and software in Bangladesh is significantly higher as compared to the rest of the world. For instance, a PC in Bangladesh costs around 12-15 months of average per-capita income compared to 4 months in China and 12 days in the US. Hence, we need to reduce the tariff levels of ICT equipment and accessories to bring even a bigger population under internet coverage.

7. Role of Private Sector

Private companies and NGOs can partner, in order to enhance awareness and utilisation of ICT at the grass-roots level. For instance, NGOs can work to bring elementary computer literacy to the people of rural Bangladesh. They can make arrangements so that IT professionals and educators visit rural schools and help students get familiar with technology.

In addition, Bangladesh needs an efficient innovation system of industry, science and research centres and universities to create new knowledge and technology. In this regard, we need an effective higher education system that provides specialised training, education and research.

8. The language divide

We may consider importing simputers without tax from India. Import of new inventions such as the simputer can further reduce costs by providing affordable computing. The simputer was developed by scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, and a software company called Encore. One can get computing facilities at a drastically lower cost as a simputer only costs US$150 per piece compared to US$ 400 for a PC. Further, it has a local language interface. This is an instance of how the scientist, academia and industry can collaborate to develop technology to suit a particular economy.

Bangladesh has a sizeable population without English literacy. Creating and maintaining locally relevant content in Bengali is a challenge. Nevertheless, Bengali language content will make ICT more relevant and accessible to a broader cross-section of the population. Hence, we need to develop applications that support the Bengali language. In addition, we need to develop voice applications that will let Bangladeshi rural people to communicate with ICT tools using spoken Bangla.

In Bangladesh IT literacy is critical to ensure that people can derive appropriate benefits from the technology revolution. However, at a more fundamental level, providing basic IT education is the first step towards enabling our people to use ICT. Today, only 55% of the Bangladeshi population is literate. Huge subsidies, however, should be given to IT education and ICT literacy programs and not in higher education. In addition, higher education must also function in a free-market environment.

9. The Political Commitment

Our government must take proactive steps to take technology to rural citizens. However our dream of a digital Bangladesh has a long way to go. Ultimately, digitalisation of Bangladesh will depend on how best the government can leverage the power of ICT to increase the access to information of its population.

[Syed Ahsanul Alam is a Governance analyst, and Professor of Marketing at the University of Chittagong as well as Chairman, Center for Good Governance]