IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The government and the organisations have invested heavily on technologies and overseas consultancies to utilise the potential of the promised e-governance and e-services. But technology alone won't fix or alleviate a business problem. It is important to understand that knowledge management is often facilitated by ICT -- technology by itself is not knowledge management.

Good governance defines an ideal which is nearly impossible or difficult to achieve in its totality. However, to ensure sustainable human development, actions must be taken to work towards this ideal. Major donors and international financial institutions, like the IMF or World Bank, are emphasisizing good governance.

"All the 64 district administration offices are already under optical fibre network which can provide high speed internet connection to manage video conference," Additional Secretary of cabinet division Khandkar Anwarul Islam told BSS yesterday.

Minister for Planning Air Vice-Marshal (Retd) AK Khandker will inaugurate the workshop as the chief guest organized by the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), said a CPTU release here on Saturday.

According to a recent study presented at a meeting of the executive committee of National Taskforce on Information and Communication Technologies (NTICT), only 28 per cent of government administrators can operate a computer, despite US$13.6 million spent to date on the national e-government project since 2002.

Bangladesh has occupied the 124th rank among 193 countries in the United Nations E-Government Survey-2016.

The 2016 ranking is 24 notches better than that of 2014 (148), said an an official of Access to Information(a2i) programme on Friday, reports BSS.

Public offices in Dhaka connected with district headquarters by fibre optic links

The government has moved a step closer to its Digital Bangladesh vision by connecting public offices in Dhaka with district and upazila headquarters through a high-speed fibre optic network.

The information and communication technology ministry has also built a network of internet protocol telephony for public offices to ensure better communication.

The government has planned to develop a smart city for fisheries in Chakaria Upazila of Cox's Bazar to tap the potential of the blue economy through marine fisheries.

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the fisheries ministry to explore the potential of the blue economy by developing a national marine fisheries management plan. We are striving to improve fish production and the livelihoods of fishermen," said Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim at a roundtable on Sunday.

The government made a big move towards speeding up the country's transition into a tech-savvy nation at the second meeting of the Digital Bangladesh Taskforce in the capital yesterday.

Major decisions include expanding the e-tendering process within six months, ensuring internet for all educational institutes by 2018, appointing international business consultants, and encouraging local assembly of digital devices like laptops, pads, tablets and smartphones.

The government has launched a total of 500 mobile apps in an attempt to facilitate public services to the people easily and cheaply using internet.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina's information and communication technology (ICT) affairs adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy inaugurated the mobile applications in a programme on Sunday.

The function was organised by the government’s ICT Division at Bangladesh Computer Council auditorium at Agargaon in Dhaka.

The government plans to establish ICT training and resource centres in 125 upazilas and create one lakh IT literate teachers at secondary schools and madrasas within the next two years to spread e-learning across the country, said official sources.

Education Secretary Md Nazrul Islam Khan told the news agency that in light of the government's Digital Bangladesh vision, the education ministry has launched a number of e-education projects, including the one for IT literate teachers.

The government has set up a computer incident response team (CIRT) at Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) to secure its online public service delivery platform network, official sources said.

They said the CIRT has been set up under a World Bank-funded Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance (LICT) Project to protect its e-(electronic) government platform from the fast growing cyber attacks and cyber crimes.

Speakers at a programme have urged the government to provide high-speed internet at affordable cost across the country to ensure people's access to available digital services.

They also stressed the need for bringing down the prices of digital devices by adjusting tax rates and promoting local manufacturers.

Besides, they suggested creating sector-specific skilled human resources for digital transformation of both government and private services in a bid to fulfil the vision of 'Digital Bangladesh'.

The demand for blockchain technology is intensifying at a rapid pace, signalling the stipulation for talent and expertise. What unfolded as a consequence of the cataclysmic financial crisis in 2008, has become one of the most radical solutions to alter the groundwork of numerous industries. Blockchain technology has become an eccentric solution to the predominant banking system, providing more control to the users and a level-playing field for new financial entrepreneurs.

Although it is renowned in the financial world, very few people comprehend the capabilities of the technology beyond that framework. The severe precariousness of the market and pessimism surrounding the notion of decentralised finance has dispersed unsolicited publicity, even though the technology rapidly evolved, and surfaced as a key disruptive player in the non-financial context.