8/14/2019 Driving Towards a Digital Society Shafiul Alam

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Driving towards a digital society

Shafiul Alam

What Mohammad Mashiur Rahman, Programmer of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), explained about the necessity of the Digital Innovation Fair 2010, was shared by others who gathered there from the government side fo

r three days from March 4 up to 6, 2010.

Mashiur told this scribe that people were not well informed of all services government provides for them. The Digital Innovation Fair has served the purpose ofinforming the people what type of services they can get from what kind of offices of the government. From that perspective, this fair is important and it is necessary for developing the information structure.

Regarding the services of IMED, he said the division, among other activities, monitors and evaluates the implementation of the projects included in the Annual Development Programme (ADP). The users can get any information from the website of the IMED. He pointed out that such fair should be held every year. People shou

ld be provided with high-speed internet connectivity and uninterrupted electricity to fulfill the vision for building a digital society. And the services shouldalso be made available and affordable to them. People are still dependent on th

e mobile phone.

"Service at Doorsteps" was the slogan of the digital innovation fair that drew huge crowd and evoked much interest and enthusiasm among the visitors and the government employees as well.

Asked what will be the impact and benefit of this fair, Mohamed A Mansur, National Consultant for electronic government procurement (e-GP) at the Central procurement Technical Unit said that people, particularly those involved in tender process can learn from our demonstration here how they can submit tender electronic

ally and where they can get tender related information. The CPTU website has been enhanced and it now caters to the needs of the stakeholders of public procurement.

The digital fair as the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina described at the opening was aimed at displaying the government services through the means of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). She expressed the strong desire of her government to reduce corruption and other hassles in the delivery of public services by enabling the offices with ICT. The PM requested all the public servants to change their mind-set and let the people think that they should not move from doorto door for services, rather the services will be made available to them throughthe introduction of the ICT culture and practices.

What really deserves appreciation is the participation of the private sector ICT-related service providers including the print and the electronic media. This isa unique expression of the government to build a partnership culture between th

e public and the private sector institutions.

Organized jointly by the Access to Information Project (A2I) supported by the UNDP under the Prime Minster's Office and the Ministry of Science and InformationCommunication Technology, the first ever digital innovation fair showcased ICT activities of all ministries of the government at the Bangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman Novo Theatre at Bijoy Sarani in the capital city. The ministries and divisions of the government had 82 stalls and 20 ones were set up by five private organizations. Apart from that, the media houses also had their stalls in the fair

. All of them tried to let the people know what they can and have innovated digitally to reach the target of building a Digital Bangladesh by 2021.

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Asaduzzaman, a public relations executive of the private telecom operator Warid,observed that the effectiveness of the fair depends on the level of communicati

on about it to the people. "The main purpose of the fair is to let people know how much our technology and IT have advanced and what are the new in this area. To materialize the vision for digital Bangladesh, the technology and services should be available and affordable to the people," he noted.

The prime Minister herself is serious about this and it was reflected in her query at our stall about the information of the remote places on website, said Shakib Ahmed, System Analyst, Assistance to SICT Project of UNDP at the Planning Division. He mentioned that the ministries have many services of their own and those are scattered. This fair has provided a common platform where sharing of information and resources have been possible. Also, it has created a sense of competition among the ministries that what technology they have and where they are lacking. So the fair will create a multiple impact. We will have the benefit of digital process after 2013 when all upazilla will come under fiber optic network.

Zillur Rahman, Director at the Export Promotion Bureau under the ministry of commerce, explained how they have developed the services for video conferencing wit

h the foreign buyers. Tasdiq Ahmed, program specialist (ICT) of CDMP showed howearly warning on the disaster can be received through SMS. He said it will be really a digital service if people need not move physically. Until now one has tomove at a stage of e-communication for payment. This should also be removed through operationalizing the e-payment or e-transaction system. Although the processhas started, it should be fully in operation for materializing the vision for d

igital Bangladesh. Dewan MD Reza of Dhaka Education Board said people do not know that we have so many electronic services. So this type of fair should continueand it should be held outside Dhaka also.

Rashed, a visitor from Mirpur said: "We should appreciate the services that we can now pay all utility bills through mobile phones, buy railway tickets online,know SSC, HSC results through SMS and do many more things by dint of technology

today. There is no scope to lag behind. We must keep pace with the global scenario." From that perspective, this fair and subsequent activities will drive the country towards a digital society, he added.

One of the visitors complained of sound pollution in the fair and said if thereis such a noise then how can we learn about the services here. Another visitor appreciated the idea and said there is a need for change in the mind-set of the government employees and the people as well. He said making people hostage by blocking the files has long been a culture in the public sector. The government canchange it by introducing the digital culture. But at the same time it has to ad

dress the problems of the employees and other reasons as to why the red tape hasruled the roost.

Shafiul Alam is a

communication specialist.

He can be reached at e-mail:

shafiul_1966@yahoo.com