Ibne Siraj :
Digitization, the mass adoption of connected digital services by consumers, enterprises, and governments, emerged in recent years as a key economic driver to accelerate growth and facilitate job creation. In the current state of sluggish global economy, digitization plays an important role in helping policy makers to spur growth and employment. An estimate said that despite the unfavorable global economic climate, digitization provided a US$193 billion boost to world economic output and created 6 million jobs globally in 2011. The investment and the number of jobs in the digitized sectors have now gone exorbitantly to a higher extent. However, the impact of digitization by country and by sector is still uneven.
Developed economies enjoyed higher economic growth benefits by a factor of almost 25 percent in 2011, although they tended to lag behind the emerging economies in job creation by a similar margin. The main reason for the differing effects of digitization is the economic structures of developed and emerging economies. Developed countries rely chiefly on domestic consumption, which makes non-tradable sectors important. Across developed economies, digitization improves productivity and has a measurable effect on growth. The overall scenario is now much wider in both developed and emerging economies across the world. However, the result can be job losses because lower-skill, lower-value-added work is sent abroad to emerging markets, where labor is cheaper.
By contrast, emerging markets are more export-oriented and driven by tradable sectors. They tend to gain more from digitization’s effect on employment than from its influence on growth. Policymakers can harness these varying effects of digitization through three main measures, which go beyond their current roles of setting policy and regulations. First, they should create digitization plans for targeted sectors in which they wish to maximize the impact of digitization. Second, they should encourage the development of the necessary capabilities and enablers to achieve these digitization plans. Finally, policy makers should work in concert with industry, consumers, and government agencies to establish an inclusive information and communication technologies (ICT) eco-system that encourages greater uptake and usage of digital services in economy.
As the use of information and communication technology has been playing a vital role in the 21st century due to globalization, Bangladesh government was encouraged to adapting with the coming future. The government targeting establishment of a resourceful and modern country by 2021 through effective use of information and communication technology-a “Digital Bangladesh”. With the belief that without developing the ICT sector, a country can never be fully developed, the government has taken different initiatives for developing the ICT sector.
The 3G system has already been launched to bring whole Bangladesh under this service in near future side by side with facilitating mobile phone and internet services far and wide. The 4G is also coming up soon to further upgrade the overall digitization across Bangladesh. To provide better information service, the government opened 4,501 union information centres. With the help of the mobile banking now, people from all spheres of the society are getting banking services quite easily. Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has already brought all vehicle owners under its digitization service network.
Ensuring access to the Digital Bangladesh for all citizens, poor or rich, literate or illiterate, urban or rural, is another foundation stone of Digital Bangladesh. The key objective of this component is to find a sustainable channel so that people can benefit from all that the Digital Bangladesh would offer in a manner that he or she could easily use and afford. More specifically, this component will deal with building awareness and capacity of the communities to access public services leveraging ICTs, issues linked with local language and locally relevant content, innovative access channels and platforms for the commoners. This component will also deal with establishing two-way channels to promote participation of grassroots in policy discourse and provide feedbacks to the policy makers on particular policy adjustments.
Already mobile phones have created a sustainable channel of communication. The use of mobile phone based voting to determine the best singing talent in a TV show probably represents the most popular use of the device to reach to the poorest of the poor. Several pilot projects are underway to use voice-based systems that provide required
agricultural information to the farmer. Tele-medicine, both as a tool for off-site service by medical specialist and as a call-centre service, is tried and tested in local context.
Several initiatives to develop community based and/or rural shared internet access points by both private sector and government are underway. Already Bangladesh Tele-centre Network, an association of private sector practitioners, has deployed many hundreds of these centres. At the same time, initiative to establish such shared access points in Union Parishads, Upazilla Parishads, Farmers’ Clubs, Agriculture extension service stations, Pauroshovas are underway under the direct/indirect auspices of government agencies. Phone-in programmes in public and private TV channels are now a regular feature. Introduction of phone-in feature in the nationally televised programme on agricultural, health, legal and human rights issues already attracts a large audience.
Community radio can emerge as another channel of communication for the poor and the marginalized. If people’s participation in programming and management can be ensured, community radio can be a sustainable platform for people-to-people communication and problem solving. As part of the Digital Bangladesh vision, new efforts should be undertaken to develop sustainable delivery channel systematically in partnership with private sector as the last mile provider. Shared and specialized service outlets, both in private sector and at the local government bodies, to cater one-stop services to the citizen need to be established and promoted.
Digitization, the mass adoption of connected digital services by consumers, enterprises, and governments, emerged in recent years as a key economic driver to accelerate growth and facilitate job creation. In the current state of sluggish global economy, digitization plays an important role in helping policy makers to spur growth and employment. An estimate said that despite the unfavorable global economic climate, digitization provided a US$193 billion boost to world economic output and created 6 million jobs globally in 2011. The investment and the number of jobs in the digitized sectors have now gone exorbitantly to a higher extent. However, the impact of digitization by country and by sector is still uneven.
Developed economies enjoyed higher economic growth benefits by a factor of almost 25 percent in 2011, although they tended to lag behind the emerging economies in job creation by a similar margin. The main reason for the differing effects of digitization is the economic structures of developed and emerging economies. Developed countries rely chiefly on domestic consumption, which makes non-tradable sectors important. Across developed economies, digitization improves productivity and has a measurable effect on growth. The overall scenario is now much wider in both developed and emerging economies across the world. However, the result can be job losses because lower-skill, lower-value-added work is sent abroad to emerging markets, where labor is cheaper.
By contrast, emerging markets are more export-oriented and driven by tradable sectors. They tend to gain more from digitization’s effect on employment than from its influence on growth. Policymakers can harness these varying effects of digitization through three main measures, which go beyond their current roles of setting policy and regulations. First, they should create digitization plans for targeted sectors in which they wish to maximize the impact of digitization. Second, they should encourage the development of the necessary capabilities and enablers to achieve these digitization plans. Finally, policy makers should work in concert with industry, consumers, and government agencies to establish an inclusive information and communication technologies (ICT) eco-system that encourages greater uptake and usage of digital services in economy.
As the use of information and communication technology has been playing a vital role in the 21st century due to globalization, Bangladesh government was encouraged to adapting with the coming future. The government targeting establishment of a resourceful and modern country by 2021 through effective use of information and communication technology-a “Digital Bangladesh”. With the belief that without developing the ICT sector, a country can never be fully developed, the government has taken different initiatives for developing the ICT sector.
The 3G system has already been launched to bring whole Bangladesh under this service in near future side by side with facilitating mobile phone and internet services far and wide. The 4G is also coming up soon to further upgrade the overall digitization across Bangladesh. To provide better information service, the government opened 4,501 union information centres. With the help of the mobile banking now, people from all spheres of the society are getting banking services quite easily. Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has already brought all vehicle owners under its digitization service network.
Ensuring access to the Digital Bangladesh for all citizens, poor or rich, literate or illiterate, urban or rural, is another foundation stone of Digital Bangladesh. The key objective of this component is to find a sustainable channel so that people can benefit from all that the Digital Bangladesh would offer in a manner that he or she could easily use and afford. More specifically, this component will deal with building awareness and capacity of the communities to access public services leveraging ICTs, issues linked with local language and locally relevant content, innovative access channels and platforms for the commoners. This component will also deal with establishing two-way channels to promote participation of grassroots in policy discourse and provide feedbacks to the policy makers on particular policy adjustments.
Already mobile phones have created a sustainable channel of communication. The use of mobile phone based voting to determine the best singing talent in a TV show probably represents the most popular use of the device to reach to the poorest of the poor. Several pilot projects are underway to use voice-based systems that provide required
agricultural information to the farmer. Tele-medicine, both as a tool for off-site service by medical specialist and as a call-centre service, is tried and tested in local context.
Several initiatives to develop community based and/or rural shared internet access points by both private sector and government are underway. Already Bangladesh Tele-centre Network, an association of private sector practitioners, has deployed many hundreds of these centres. At the same time, initiative to establish such shared access points in Union Parishads, Upazilla Parishads, Farmers’ Clubs, Agriculture extension service stations, Pauroshovas are underway under the direct/indirect auspices of government agencies. Phone-in programmes in public and private TV channels are now a regular feature. Introduction of phone-in feature in the nationally televised programme on agricultural, health, legal and human rights issues already attracts a large audience.
Community radio can emerge as another channel of communication for the poor and the marginalized. If people’s participation in programming and management can be ensured, community radio can be a sustainable platform for people-to-people communication and problem solving. As part of the Digital Bangladesh vision, new efforts should be undertaken to develop sustainable delivery channel systematically in partnership with private sector as the last mile provider. Shared and specialized service outlets, both in private sector and at the local government bodies, to cater one-stop services to the citizen need to be established and promoted.
