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Bangladesh's National ICT Policy

MD “Zaman” Akteruzzaman, president of the Bangladesh Multimedia Association and founder of the Bangladesh Youth Forum on ICT, spoke of the technology challenges and opportunities faced by Bangladesh. In 1998 the government stopped charging import duties on computers, helping lower the price significantly. But telecom access is limited: there are less than two million fixed line and mobile phones in a country with a population over 100 million.

ICT Minister Abdul Moyeen Khan and Zaman take questions from the audience

Bangladesh has had some well known success stories: in particular, the Grameen Phone program has helped women in rural villages develop microenterprise businesses providing mobile phone access to members of their communities. As of October 2003, there were more than 39,000 mobile phones working in 28,000 villages thanks to the program. These phones, which are managed by the women and rented to local residents, have provided millions of people access to mobile technology when they need to use it.

The Bangladeshi government is supportive of the Digital Solidarity Fund, an international fund for supporting telecom infrastructure in developing nations, proposed by the Senegalese government last year. The prime minister has expressed interest in the creation of the initiative, which has faced resistance among western governments. Whether or not the fund is created, he said, it’s necessary for the world to address the challenge of helping all people to be empowered by ICTs, no matter if they come from a developed or developing nation.

Zaman then discussed the national ICT policy, which among other things emphasizes public access to government information through a national e-government portal that’s now in development. The nation’s ICT infrastructure should extend to all citizens, empowering people and enhancing democratic values, he explained. The technology must also be affordable and accessible to people in remote areas – a particular challenge for a country with a large rural population. They are expanding access through existing infrastructures, including broadband that was deployed for the national railways, as well as for gas and electric utilities. The government is also deploying Internet kiosks to all post offices, which in many cases will be the first Internet access point in many communities.

Following the presentation, Effat El-Shooky of Egypt's RITSEC programmed noted that developing nations such as Bangladesh and Egypt must find ways of collaborating to address the digital divide. "We really need to see more South-South cooporation on this issue," she said.

Posted by acarvin at May 10, 2004 10:30 PM | TrackBack