CITY INFORMATIZATION: CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES A Z M SHAFIQUL ISLAM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER DHAKA CITY CORPORATION DHAKA, BANGLADESH

CITY INFORMATIZATION: CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES A Z M SHAFIQUL ISLAM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER DHAKA CITY CORPORATION DHAKA, BANGLADESH

DIGITAL TELEPHONE BROAD BAND CYBER CAFE COMPUTER SATELLITE TRANSMISSION HUB IT POLICY & CYBER LAW CITY INFORMATIZATION ISP VSAT INTERNET BROWZING OPTICAL FIBER CABLE E-TECHNOLOGY

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR INFORMATIZATION Liberalization of the telecommunication sector Strengthening the national communication sector Supporting computing( hardware & software) and Internet infrastructure Facilitation of investment in technology and Infrastructure development Removing high taxes on imported hardware and software Development of Human Resources (Technical skill) Adoption of investment- friendly policies ( Ref. ADBI Executive Summary Series No. S39/01)

POTENTIALITY OF DHAKA CITY IN INFORMATIZATION City is fully covered with telephone network ( 80% analogue telephones are replaced by digital, 360,000 digital phones are in operation and 300,000 digital phones installation under way.) Government has a plan to reduce the telephone installation fee in the city by 50 %. Government had withdrawn import duties & value added taxes. Now the computer prices are within the limit of the common users in the city A large number of Internet Service providers(isps), 25,000 Internet account holders and 150,000 users and a good number of Cyber cafes & Internet browsing facilities in the city

BTTB, the only Government owned organization with modern telecom & satellite transmission providing VSAT & Internet browsing facilities to the private ISPs at a lower cost Recently a private company launched its operation through a satellite hub with 153.6 kbps bandwidth & 16,000 VSAT terminals The gradual computerization of the business and the government organization has brought dynamism in services and customer satisfaction A large number of data entry firms and software developers with an export market ( Last year earning from software exports 20 million US $)

The private banks are operating electronic transaction, securities exchange automation, tele medicine gains momentum The Government, Public offices and the utility service organizations are gradually setting up their web sites with data bases and policy documents to enable the city dwellers easy access to information. The establishment of the IT village near the Dhaka City and the installation of submarine cable would open up gateway for potential possibilities to informatization.

IT Usage in Bangladesh 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 55.82% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% 14.81% 8.38% 20.47% Hardware / Software marketing Data processing services Human Resource Development Users( Govt off., private & personal ) ( Source : JIEB Vol. Mul-dis 26, No. 1, Dec 2001,p-74)

IT activities in Bangladesh 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 33.67% 13.87% 13.80% 11.70% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Office Management Financial Management Networking Others 8.70% 1.04% 17.17% Database Management Internet Access Health care services ( Source : JIEB Vol. Mul-dis 26, No. 1, Dec 2001,p-74)

IT Human Resources 50.00% 40.00% 48.90% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% 16.37% 12.74% Teacher System Analyst Network Expert Hardware Engineer 2.60% 4.64% 2.30% 6.52% 5.23% Administrator Data Base Expert Programmer Operator ( Source : JIEB Vol. Mul-dis 26, No. 1, Dec 2001,p-74)

POTENTIAL IT PROJECTS IN BANGLADESH National Voter Data base, Computerized ID cards Computerized nationwide seat reservation & ticketing system for Bangladesh Railway National Data Bank Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system in utility services (Power, gas, Telephone etc. ) Securities exchange automation Secondary and Higher Secondary examination system automation Multimedia multilingual encyclopedia

GOVERNMENT POLICY TOWARDS INFORMATIZATION Formation of National IT Task Force To liberalize the telecommunication Government has established independent Telecom Regulatory Commission The establishment of IT village near the Dhaka City Building national high speed Digital Data Network(DDN) Formulation of National IT policy and Cyber Law Set up of Bangladesh Computer Council( BCC) for IT promotional services Exemption of import duties and value added taxes for computer hardware and software. Free computer distribution to secondary schools and colleges Financial support and explore market for software and data entry services.