Digital Bangladesh
Don't abolish vision with change of govt
Urge speakers
Speakers at a roundtable yesterday stressed that the agenda of a digital Bangladesh should be depoliticised so the vision is not scrapped with change of government.
It is a long-held political culture in the country that the newly elected government alters agenda set by the pervious government, they said.
This threatens to frustrate much of the groundwork done to achieve the Vision 2021, they added, demanding that the vision of a digital Bangladesh be made a national agenda instead of a political one.
The roundtable on e-Government was organised by the Institute of Governance Studies (IGS) of Brac University at Jatri conference room in the city.
The speakers suggested building strong public opinion in favour of a digital Bangladesh with examples of benefits of digitalised methods.
“For instance, many public universities have implemented online admission system this year with candidates submitting forms and receiving admission information on mobile phones and computers,” said Munir Hasan, senior consultant, the ministry of science and ICT.
“These small examples would create strong public opinion in favour of the digital Bangladesh agenda,” he said.
“These people would take to the street to hold protests if the next government tries to change the vision.”
The discussants termed the launching of the Union Information and Service Centres (UISCs) a major step forward in taking informational services at people's doorsteps in the rural areas.
However, the initiative is not without its shortcomings, they noted.
“I feel these information centres would not be much useful in the next couple of years,” said Golam Mawla Rony.
“The government should have digitalised its services and offered them where needed instead of making common information centres without much content or services to offer.”
But the initiative proved that the government is sincere about taking its services at the doorsteps of the rural people, the speakers said.
Despite the achievements, lack of collaboration among the different ICT-related ministries and agencies remain a major problem for the country, they added.
“The ICT Policy 2009 is a comprehensive and highly structured policy made with a collective theme,” said Habibullah N Karim, former president of Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (BASIS).
Along with the policy, much of the groundwork has been done for ICT related developments; all that remains to be done is to implement the projects, he said.
The discussants termed the bureaucracies a major obstacle in implementing e-Governance related projects. They said even high government officials tend to avoid technology despite ease of access.
“The question that needs to be asked is why the bureaucrats should use their computers when their work does not require them to do so,” said Anir Chowdhury, policy adviser to the Access to Information (A2I) programme of the Prime Minister's Office.
This is why the bureaucracies need to be brought under computerised systems to change this trend, he said.
IGS Research Associate Sirajul Islam presented the keynote paper while Ananya Raihan, executive director of D.Net, moderated the programme.
Director of IGS of Brac University, Manzoor Hasan; Awami League lawmakers Tanvir Shakil Joy and Golam Mawla Rony; joint editor of the daily Prothom Alo, Abdul Qayyum Mukul; and Prof Dr Suraiya Begum of Dhaka University; among others, also spoke.
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