Essay: Digital Bangladesh

To cherish such a dream is easy, but it is too much difficult to materialize this dream. Land phone, mobile, computer, laptop, e-magazine and diary, e-book reader and many more tools of information technology will be available in every nook and corner of the country. People will no more have to stand in queue to collect tickets, results etc or to deposit and withdraw money or to buy and sell things. Broadly speaking, a digital society ensures an ICT driven knowledge-based society where information will be readily available online and where all possible tasks of the government, semi-government and also private spheres will be processed using the modern technology. So, “Digital Bangladesh” must guarantee efficient and effective use of modem ICT in all spheres of the society with a view to establishing good governance.

Why Digital Bangladesh: Due to globalization, Bangladesh has already been connected with the outside world. Yet In the field of ICT, our only grand success lies in Mobile telecommunication which has brought an abrupt change in telecommunication scenario of the country. However, in the other spheres of ICT, our achievement is very insignificant and we are still far away from transforming ourselves into a knowledge-based society. Building strong ICT infrastructure is the pre-requisite for making Bangladesh a digital one. For this, we need to focus on the following relevant issues:

(a) Power deficit: Latest statistics reveal that Bangladesh faces a power deficit of up to 2000 MW against a demand of 5000 MW daily. It may be noted that for proper ICT development an uninterrupted power supply is a must.

(b) Network infrastructure: Outside Dhaka, at present a few computer network infrastructures have been developed so far. Apart from some educational institutes outside Dhaka, observation finds that most of the LAN setups are Dhaka centric. This observation reveals the reality of the digital gap even within the country.

(c) Use of internet: For the ICT development internet users of the country must be increased. In this case our position is the worst one among the South Asian countries. Latest statistics (2007) revealed that internet penetration in our country is only 0.3 whereas in Pakistan and India it is 7.3% and 5.3% respectively.

(d) Use of open source software: Many countries (e.g. France and Malaysia) have started to use open source software in ICT development projects for cost effectiveness. Unfortunately in our ICT development domain, the culture of using open source has not yet been introduced.

(e) English-literacy rate: From different sources, it has been learnt that, English literacy rate in Bangladesh is less than one percent. In the arena of ICT English has become lingua-Franca. Unfortunately, in this case our position is the worst in the sub-continent. For making a digital Bangladesh by 2021, the government must address the above issues effectively and efficiently in transparent manners. Moreover, the journey towards a digital country needs the incorporation of the technologically solvent innovative young generation. If the leaders of our country objectively guide this generation, they can change the nation radically.

(f) Better agricultural production: The farmers will use all types of modern motorized tools instead of traditional equipments and their hand-driven tools to cultivate their lands. They will have to get ample online help about producing more and more crops.

(g) Modern treatment: Patients will have to get telemedicine and tele-surgery facilities with the use of audio and video conferencing based net. Besides, 24-hour online help will radically change the traditional medical services.

(h) E-learning and e-commerce: All the educational and commercial institutions will come under a good network system and the details of these institutions and their activities will be available on websites. E-paper, digitised pen, e-book, pen drive and screen-touch tools will replace the traditional tools for many different reasons.

Conclusion: Time has come for Bangladesh to develop her information technology and to turn her “Digital Bangladesh”. We need to bear in mind that to be away from enriched information technology means to live like a frog living in a well. We should look at the advanced countries of the world so that we can get modern ways and strategies from them to bring about a revolution for our ICT based society. Like Mahathir Muhammad’s Malaysia, we have to have our all-out efforts to materialise our desired Vision-2021 for our betterment and own existence.