Digital dividends still far off

The ICT sector accounts for less than 0.5 percent of total jobs in Bangladesh even though digital technologies have spread rapidly in recent years, according to a new World Bank report.

The rate is close to 1 percent in India and Nigeria and 0.5 percent in Kenya, said the World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends.

The government has taken a series of steps to transform the country into Digital Bangladesh, but it is still lagging in reaping the benefits of faster internet and penetration of mobile phones.

With around 130 million mobile phone subscribers, the digital technologies are taking hold in Bangladesh. Yet, the country has the fifth largest population not connected to the internet.

“Bangladesh can accelerate growth, create more jobs and deliver better public services by enhancing access to digital technologies,” the WB said.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for information and communication technology, and Qimiao Fan, country director of the WB for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, jointly launched the report at the Amari hotel in Dhaka yesterday.

In Bangladesh, mobile banking has broadened financial inclusion for the poor. Further, the government has rolled out electronic government procurement or e-GP. 

Bidders, even at the upazila level, have embraced the new way of doing business, which has helped reduce the time and transaction costs and enhanced transparency and competition of public procurement.

The government has also set up the country's first national data centre. It hosts over 200 government websites, and ensures much higher reliability and efficiency in the use of ICT by the public sector.

Bangladesh has one of the cheapest rates to make a phone call, but internet prices remain high, the report said.

Some 148 million people in Bangladesh still do not have access to the internet, the WB said.

However, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, there were 6.12 crore active internet connections in the country as of March.

Deepak Mishra, co-director of the report, acknowledged the internet access number gap between the report and the national data and pointed three major reasons for the difference.

For the report, the WB used data until August 2014 from the International Telecommunication Union, which is much reliable and easily comparable with other countries, he said.

“So time lag is a big difference here. As it is a global report, we have to use the database that is globally accepted and where you can compare across the countries.”

The definition of internet accessibility is another issue, Mishra added.

Palak said the WB is the biggest patron of ICT development in the country.

Currently, there are seven lakh internet professionals in Bangladesh and the government is determined to increase the number to 25 lakh by 2021, he said.

The sector aims to generate $5 billion in earnings from the ICT sector, which now stands $330 million.

“To get the maximum benefit from the sector, the government has decided to remove all barriers created by related laws and policies,” Palak added.

Qimiao Fan said the WB is supporting the government's vision of 'Digital Bangladesh' through complementary investments for the country to fully benefit from the digital dividends.

Digital technologies are transforming the world; their potential for reducing poverty and accelerating growth is enormous, he said.

“But, access to technology is insufficient to reduce poverty if it is not backed by reforms in the business environment, skills development, and good governance.”

He said Bangladesh is a place where millions of young people see the benefits of technology to transform their lives and the communities. “It is very important for Bangladesh to ensure that every citizen has access to safe fruitful high speed internet to participate in this digital world.”

Bangladesh should focus on closing the digital divides by making the internet universal, affordable, open and safe, according to the WB report.

The benefits of rapid digital expansion have been skewed towards the wealthy, skilled, and influential around the world, who are better positioned to take advantage of the new technologies.

Though the number of internet users worldwide has more than tripled since 2005, four billion people still lack access to the internet. To make businesses more productive and innovative, the report suggests that the countries invest in basic infrastructure, reduce the cost of doing business, lower trade barriers and facilitate entry of start-ups  and  competition across digital platforms. In addition, as the internet spreads, it will be essential for children to have early exposure to ICT skills.

There are also downsides to the technological shift.

From a technological standpoint, about 45 percent of all jobs are susceptible to automation in Bangladesh, which is two-thirds globally.

But the effects are moderated by lower wages and slower technology adoption. SM Ashraful Islam, executive director of Bangladesh Computer Council, also spoke.