The New Nation - Internet Edition

Md. Anwarul Kabir

Part-II

In this case our position is a worst one as shown in the table.

e) Use of open source software: Many countries (eg. France and Malaysia) on the globe has started to use open source software in ICT development projects for cost effectiveness. Unfortunately, in our ICT development domain the culture of using open source has not yet been introduced.

f) Networked Readiness: Networked Readiness Index (NRI) measures the propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by information and communications technology. It is published annually. The NRI seeks to better comprehend the impact of ICT on the competitiveness of nations. The NRI is a composite of three components: the environment for ICT offered by a given country or community, the readiness of the community's key stakeholders (individuals, businesses, and governments) to use ICT, and finally the usage of ICT amongst these stakeholders.

Country Ranking

China 13

Japan 14

India 44

Pakistan 84

Sri Lanka 86

Bangladesh 118

Table 5: Networked readiness of some Asian countries (2006-7)

Source: University of Harvard

In the above table, unfortunately Bangladesh's ranking is one of the lowest among the Asian countries.

g) Growth in export oriented Software Development: Software exports in the last financial year: $30 million only. This is indeed a very insignificant contribution to the total revenue earning from the country's export sector!

Domestic market for the locally developed software product too has not been expanded too. One survey (by the author) has been revealed that less than 10% of the BASIS member software firms work only for domestic market.

C. Governance

For proper ICT development in a country, establishment of good governance is a must. Since independence, Bangladesh has been critically suffering from ill-governance. Lack of vision, corruption, lack of transparency, weak coordination, undemocratic decision making are the salient features of our government. These can also be marked as the major barrier to the overall progress of Bangladesh.

However, assessing the above stated harsh realities of the country we should design a roadmap for ICT as our future directives. For this, the following recommendations may be suggested for the relevant policy makers of the country:

I. Recommendation for the Education sector

(A) There is a strong correlation between English literacy and ICT development. So, to increase the ICT enabled people in the country we should give more emphasis on English language and basic ICT education.

Many researches on education have revealed that unavailability of quality English teacher from primary to higher secondary level is the major cause for the present sub-standard English language education. To overcome this, the government and MPO-based educational institutes should recruit quality English teachers with higher salary structure.

Basic ICT education should start at the primary level. However, due to financial constraints it may not be possible at present. But at least, we should initiate compulsory basic ICT education from the secondary level.

For this every school and college should be equipped with computer labs with the Internet facility along with appropriate curriculum and quality computer teachers. So, the government should sanction special budget to promote English and ICT education.

(B) Each year, the developed countries like the USA and the UK dump huge number of computers in good condition just to procure latest models of computers. Non Resident Bangladeshis (NRB) may take initiative to collect those abandoned computers and send those to Bangladesh for the use of our educational institutes. Bangladesh foreign missions in the developed countries may also take step in this regard.

(C) Quality aspects of ICT education must be ensured. For this, Government should introduce transparent ranking system for both the private and public universities. This, in turn, will promote the overall quality of higher education in Bangladesh.

(D) Since 2001, in Bangladesh the student intake at undergraduate level in computer science has been falling in a significant number. Even in the first grade private universities of the country, in the academic year 2004-2005, the student in take on average was 10-12 only. Though gradually, this trend has been improving but this is not enough to meet up the market demand. It may be mentioned that the demand for the quality programmers in the country has been increasing rapidly since the increased phenomenon of outsourcing of software development arena. It has been projected that during the period of 2009-2010, only 50% of the market demand will be met up by our universities.

So, proper projection of the required skilled manpower beforehand is a must. Ministry of education through UGC can take an initiative for this. Total number of seats for different undergraduate programs should be fixed beforehand for an academic year according to the market demand so that prior to each academic session, each public university can be notified, how many students in a particular department it can admit depending on its strength.

(E) Educational institutes, especially universities should play a pivotal role in promoting the culture of open source software use. Universities should migrate their ICT platform from closed source (or entrepreneurship commercial oriented) software. Curriculum in computer science should also stress on open source software.

(F) Collaboration between educational institutes and industries, especially in the ICT sector is a must. For this, the educational institute must design their curriculum based on the market demand of the ever changing ICT technology.

Academic institutes, especially those impart ICT education should incorporate compulsory industrial internship programs in their curriculum so that the students get exposure to the industry before their graduation.

II. Recommendations for the ICT Business sector

(A) ICT business sector must concentrates on new avenues for business.

Right now, prospect for the Call Centre seems to be a bright area. For this, proper background assessment should be done immediately.

So far, it has been identified our major barrier to Call Centre business is the lack of availability of appropriate human resources having English language proficiency. To overcome this problem, with the collaboration of the concerned stakeholders (e.g. BCC, BASIS, prospective entrepreneurs of the call centre) the academic institutes can initiate a special program on English course

(B) Software firms must give more emphasis on quality assurance. Unfortunately, till now our software firms are not paying much attention to quality software development. It may be noted till to date we have only one software firm who has achieved CMMI certification at level 3. Whereas, in India about 50% of the representative software firms have achieved CMMI certification at level 5.

To improve the overall situation, academic-industry collaboration is a must. Especially, academics can help the industries in ensuring proper software engineering processes in software development projects of the industry.

III. Recommendations for the Government Sector

(A) For proper ICT development government must give priority to improve the present scenario in the power sector of the country with a view to supplying uninterrupted electricity.

(B) The process of implementation of the second under sea submarine cable should be geared up for the quicker development in ICT sector.

(C) For minimizing digital gap and for making Bangladesh a knowledge based society, access to information by the people in the country is a must. Due to poverty and lack of ICT infrastructure, the people of the rural area are deprived of access to information effectively. For this, the government should take initiative to establish a ICT Resource Centre based in each union council office of the country. Such resource centers should have TV, LAN-connected computers with Internet facility as well as a library where the common people will get easy access.

(D) To promote local software products and other ITES (IT Enables services) government should impose high tax on the imported foreign software products and ITES.

(E) Foreign missions of the country, especially those are in the developed world should open up ICT wing with a view to facilitating our software firms in procuring outsourcing projects from those countries.

(F) To eradicate all pervasive corruption at the government level, effective and efficient e-Governance must initiate. This, in turn, will result in expected good governance.

(G) For implementation of the e-Governance, use of open source software should get priority for its cost-effectiveness and security reasons.

(H) To facilitate all citizens of the country, the proposed e-Governance system must design its user interface in Bangla so that the people of the country can interact with the government in their mother tongue.

(I) Public service commission should incorporate an ICT cadre in Bangladesh Civil Service structure which eventually will recruit ICT graduates. This cadre will take the responsibility of the implementation and maintenance of the e-Governance of the country.