In 2011, state-owned Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (TSS) made Bangladesh proud by assembling the country’s first laptop, showing promises to deliver the device at an affordable price and help the government to implement its digitalisation agenda. The excitement surrounding the Doel Laptop evaporated soon as customers were finding the performance of the device not up to the mark.
In 2014, some faculty members of Jagannath University carried out a study — ‘Enactment of a Local Laptop Brand: A Study on Doel Laptop’ – to know about users’ experiences. The study found 17.5 per cent of the users complained about the processor, 35 percent raised issues about RAM, 82.5 per cent faced problems with battery, and 7.5 per cent pointed to issues related to audio and input-output connectivity. Overall, customers are not very satisfied with the Doel Laptop. In the first three years, TSS managed to sell Tk 126 crore worth of laptops forcing it to suspend assembling.
The Doel project was established under a venture where TSS had a 25 per cent stake, while local firm 2M, and its Malaysian partner TFT Display Sdn Bhd (TFT) owned the rest. TFT and 2M abandoned the project soon after its inception. By contrast, Walton, which set up a computer assembly plant in 2018, manufactured 50,000 laptops in the first six months of 2022. It’s impossible to offer a laptop at just Tk 10,000 without compromising quality.
The state-run telecommunication company’s bad patch has continued whereas Walton, for example, went on to become a successful technology company despite operating in the same market. In Bangladesh, local manufacturers have been enjoying the opportunity to import raw materials for computer accessories by paying only 1 per cent import duty since 2017. Apart from Doel Laptops, desktop computers, notebooks, tabs, biometric devices, multimedia projectors, sound boxes, smart prepaid energy metres and other digital devices have been added to its product line. However, it incurred a loss of Tk 1.33 crore in the fiscal year of 2019-20 and Tk 1.94 crore in 2020-21.
The government entity TSS should face a competitive market to ensure its quality and the government should establish corporate governance in the institution to sustain it as a profitable venture.
