Govt set for automation of all institutes, offices

The government is set to go for automation of its all institutes and offices as part of its election promises, said the commerce minister yesterday.

“Automation would help ease manual operations and gain efficiency reducing corruptions and reinforcing accountability in government's offices and institutes,” said Col (retd) Faruk Khan.

He was speaking at a seminar on 'Chittagong Customs House Automation Project: A Walkthrough and Cookbook Presentation' organised by Data Soft Management Services at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the capital.

The minister said the government considers strengthening IT education in all educational institutions and extending cooperation for IT entrepreneurs to turn the country into a Digital Bangladesh by 2021.

He said parliament will also be automated soon.

Appreciating the venture of Chittagong Customs House Automation, Muhammad Abdul Mazid, chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), said local talents have made it possible.

When donor-funded projects failed to fully complete automation of Chittagong Customs House by spending over Tk 247 crore and working for around 10 years, Data Soft, a local company, successfully did the job in eight months at a minimal cost, he said.

Mahbub Zaman, CEO of DataSoft, said, “We were able to make the project run at a reduced cost mainly because it will function on build-own-operate-transfer basis,”

He said the project is a successful example of public-private partnership where all stakeholders are involved directly.

One of the reasons behind the failure of earlier projects is that their technology was not transferred to the locals properly, he added.

The main feature of the new automation project is that DataSoft has employed around 45 engineers in the project to troubleshoot any problem that the stakeholders may face.

In his keynote paper, Brigadier Hasan Nasir, project coordinator of the venture, showed the detailed planning and action of the project.

Earlier in 1999, a project titled CAM-1 (customs administration modernisation project-1) was the first step for automation.

Later in June 2001, another project titled 'ASYCUDA++ Migration Project' was designed to interface the ASYCUDA++ software with the computer system at five customs houses in the country.

Habibullah N Karim, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (Basis), was also present at the seminar.