Investment in digital infrastructure did not ensure access for all: Experts
The book is the first international publication on Bangladesh's digital transformation that reviews the digital revolution and its economic impact that has taken place here over the past decade
A large section of the population is still deprived of access to digital services although huge investment has been made for digital infrastructure development in the past decade, experts told a programme on Thursday.
Many people cannot afford digital devices. As a result, inequality is widespread, especially in rural areas, they observed at the unveiling ceremony of the book entitled "Digital Transformation and Economic Development in Bangladesh", organised by Bangladesh Evaluation Society at Biswa Sahitya Kendra in the capital.
Internet speed is still slow in rural areas, while its cost is beyond the reach of rural people and the data packages of mobile phone operators are not people-friendly, they noted.
The author of the book and Research Director of Bangladesh Development Research Institute (BIDS) Monzur Hossain said that appropriate incentives should be provided for both parties to increase the ability to use digital devices and the internet. Free Wi-Fi hotspots can be set up in every village and educational institution.
He said that the manufacturing and SME sectors lag behind in digital automation. They need to be provided with proper incentives for automation and innovation. Only then economic growth will gear up, he added.
The book is the first international publication on Bangladesh's digital transformation that reviews the digital revolution and its economic impact that has taken place here over the past decade.
The 14 chapters cover Digital Bangladesh Vision, Linkage of Digitalisation with Economic Development, Current State of Digitalisation, Policy Formulation and Development of Institutions for Digitalisation, Development of IT Industry, State of Digitalisation in Rural Areas, Human Resource and Skill Gap, Impact of Digital Transformation in Various Sectors, Impact of Digitalisation on Economic Growth, and The Role of Digitalisation in Sustainable Development.
The book makes several recommendations to accelerate the benefits of digitisation. The issue of dearth of data is especially highlighted in the book.
For example, there is a shortage of data on the total exports of the IT sector, the income of freelancers, the actual number of internet users in the country, etc. Therefore, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has given importance to the countrywide IT survey every five years.
Habibullah N Karim, managing director and CEO of Technohaven Company Ltd said that it is possible to increase the country's growth by 2% through IT. Much work is being done on IT in the private sector, but the issue is yet to get importance at the government level. In every government department, various IT-related projects are going on but there is not much assessment.
"We can strengthen the IT sector by increasing investment by creating IT platforms. But in all cases, we need hard data," he said, adding: To collect hard data, an actual survey has to be carried out, not a sample survey. The baseline data should be fixed before deciding where we want to be in 2031 or 2041.
Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed, founder and chairman of Bishwa Sahitya Kendra said the country has come a long way in the digital transformation process but is lagging behind in education. The education of the last 60-70 years is no more. The country's own education and culture are disappearing.
Khalilur Rahman, telecommunications secretary, said that it is impossible to increase the internet speed faster everywhere simultaneously. It was found that most of the officials do not use the internet for any good purpose.
Prime Minister's Economic Adviser Mashiur Rahman said, "We do not have the capacity to create many clusters at a time. There is no instructor to provide training. The data that we have is not that bad.
"We say the information is not correct only if it does not match with what we want."
Planning Minister MA Mannan said that the prime minister has taken the country's future one step ahead.
"We are moving forward with the goals of 2031 and 2041 to build a smart Bangladesh."