Anisul Huq
Law Minister, GoB :
Telecommunication and ICT services in Bangladesh under government patronage got a commendable pace in terms of geographical coverage, variety of innovations and quality of service. This has only been possible due to appropriate legislation and policies along with their successful implementation. Bangladesh being a country with the 8th largest population, having more than 160 million people, is one of the most densely populated area in the world. Yet, Bangladesh has successfully brought the appropriate technology to the people within their affordability.
Government of Bangladesh under the leadership of honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is committed to turn Bangladesh into a middle-income country by the year 2021 utilizing the power of Telecom and ICT.
The national vision is to develop a networked and knowledge based society 2021, which has declared as Vision 2021 by the government. Vision 2021 calls for Bangladeshi socio-economic environment to be transform from a low middle- income economy to an upper middle-income nation by the year 2021. In order to develop a knowledge-based society, we launched a number of initiatives to explore the benefits of utilizing Telecom and ICTs for service delivery. The ICT Policy cuts to numerous thematic groups, including Education, Science and Technology, Infra-structural Development, Employment Generation, Private Sector Development, Agriculture, Health including Nutrition, and Small and Medium Enterprises. And all these will be achieved with the recognition that the state must play a key role in sustaining economic development.
Bangladesh has an exclusive implementation strategy as far as Telecom and ICT sector is concerned. We have an ILDTS (International Long Distance Telecommunication Service) policy that allows stakeholders at different strata to frame a sustainable network infrastructure to accommodate all types of Telecom and ICT expansions and innovations.
The remotest corner of the country connected to the modern technology and inventions. We have a long track record of the development history.
We have been able to build a robust progress in the field of Agriculture, Education, Health, Business and Commerce, Banking and so on through optimum use of Telecom and ICT platform. However, we are still in the process of looking for continuous achievements in these sectors. We are thriving for a few of the key corners such as E-Governance, E-Business, Mobile Financial Service and M-Health etc.
We have a series of achievements namely, adoption of 3G technology where 5 operators have been awarded 3G licenses;586 entreprenures have been issued with ISP licenses for providing internet services; introduced new Gateway Licenses; 42 ISPs have been issued with IPTSP licenses for promoting IP-based voice communication; build nation-wide connectivity; reduced Bandwidth price significantly and so on. We have enormous Growth Rate of Voice and Internet penetration compared to previous years. We have 30-35% penetration in the Internet alone out of which almost 5% in the Broadband usage. We hope to increase it to 45% by 2018 and around 50% by the year 2021. We have more than 130 million mobile subscribers out of which 30% use smart phones for data connectivity.
Keeping in line with the MDGs and SDGs, development priorities of the Government distilled keeping in view Technical Framework for Achieving Middle Income Country Status, under a Digital Bangladesh. The regulator has articulated the Digital Bangladesh vision in certain terms, starting the process of leadership development to realize this vision.
It need to be mentioned that in pursuance of this policy Bangladesh’s ICT sector is growing at an estimated 20% per year. From the perspective of policy reform and development, the Access to Information (A2I) Programme identified over 53 e-citizen services, which were termed as quick-win activities.
Telecom and ICT is a major contributing sector to national GDP that is above 6% consistently over the past decade.
In this sector, we have the highest FDI operating presently. We have already earned “Self Sufficiency” in some food item; we can pronouncedly say that this is because of the impacts of the Telecom and ICT services. We also have enormous achievements in regards to ICT services in the health, education, and public services sector as well.
Around 2.4 million employees are working day-night to nourish and develop this sector. These all are collectively contributing to the growth of our economy, hence, attributing in poverty alleviation in order to achieving MDGs and SDGs.
At this point, we need to leverage next generation technologies with regard to Telecom and ICT sector, offer affordable and robust Internet access to public. Thereafter, utilize these technologies to promote innovation and build social impact in order to achieve economic and social development.
An enabled environment with Internet, Telecom including Mobile services more specifically ‘broadband’ in rural Bangladesh, may play a vital role in this pathway. Therefore, we are consistently trying to identify future challenges, opportunities and develop collaboration among different stakeholders in Telecom and ICT sector.
In today’s world, financial inclusion is a fundamental to the social inclusion and it is necessary to foster inclusive growth and combat poverty. That is why “Digital Financial Inclusion” remains as one of the core elements of “Digital Bangladesh” vision.
Considering the socio-economic condition and general literacy rate, it may not be commercially feasible for the banks to deliver the financial services to the remotest corner of the country. Here mobile industry can play a significant role utilizing the infrastructure they have deployed over few decades. Mobile Financial Service (MFS) considered as one of the revolutionary inventions in terms of economic inclusion around the world.
Bangladesh Bank with its visionary policies and roadmap has ensured quick adoption of mobile services across the country. With around 36.6 million total of MFS account, monthly transaction value is increasing at 7 to 8%. The daily transaction through mobile financial service (US$ 2250 million) is approximately 10 times higher than daily revenue of entire mobile industry (around 60 crore per day). With this, I want to request the members of this forum to interconnect mobile financial services within the region, hence promoting the trade and commerce among the people of the region.
Finally, I hope that the 17th SATRC will definitely help us all to interact & renew our commitments towards common desire to build a people-centred, inclusive & development oriented information society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life, premised on the purposes and of the Charter of the Global Standards.
(Law Minister Anisul Huq delivered the speech at the Opening Ceremony of 17th South Asian Telecommunication Regulators’ Council (SATRC) 2016 held in the city on October 04)
