Build right ecosystem to expedite digitalisation

The country should build the right ecosystem, update laws and automate transactions to accelerate the ongoing digitalisation process and make people's lives easier, said speakers yesterday.

“The government and regulators need to build the right ecosystem and take preparations for cyber security. Otherwise, it will create a mess,” said Raihan Shamsi, chairman and chief executive of DevoTech Technology Park, a platform that fosters technology ecosystem in Bangladesh.

Shamsi's comment came at a roundtable styled 'Digitalisation for life' at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka. Citibank and The Daily Star jointly organised the discussion.

To achieve the country's digitalisation aspiration, lots of policy frameworks need to be reformed, said Tanjib-ul Alam, a lawyer of the Supreme Court.

“Our legal systems are not allowing many institutions to do a lot of things, which is a bar for the digital process,” he added.

Digitalisation has become so universal that there is a dire need to integrate citizens' daily life with it, said N Rajashekaran (Shekar), Citibank's country officer.

Financial and digital ecosystem will push Bangladesh to the next level, where information and data security will need adequate attention.

 To make digitalisation fruitful, partnership is very important and time is critical, he added.

“Trust is a serious issue in this industry,” Shamsi said, citing the slow spread of digital payment in the country as a consequence of the lack of trust.

Currently, customers are paying cash for 90 percent of their online shopping, he said.

“If we can't turn this cash into cashless, our economy will become laughable within a few years.”

Nowadays people do not need to own a car or any physical asset; rather they can take it as a service and this will help create a strong digital society.

“There is no alternative to collaboration,” he added.

Digitalisation is the future, and the government institutions need maximum digitalisation as a developing country, said Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star.

In the area of governance, the use of digitalisation will increase efficiency manifold and ensure further value for money in a poor country like Bangladesh, he added.

The government's payment system is not digitalised and this is a big bottleneck for the digitalisation process, said Ashish Chakraborty, chief operating officer of Software Shop.

“Regulations need to be changed to match the market, instead of the other way around,” he added.

The ecosystem must be developed for digitalisation and the payment system is also a part of it, said Khandaker Ali Kamran Al Zahid, joint director of the payment systems department of the Bangladesh Bank.

“Regulations also need to be updated to run the digital industry.”

In the coming days, existing service providers will get a hit from the newcomers and if the incumbents do not match the new systems they will become obsolete.

The banking regulator is thinking of allowing interoperability within the mobile financial service providers, which will also help the market to become mature, Zahid added.

“Digitalisation of life is a journey, not a destination,” said Md Moinul Huq, head of treasury and trade solutions at Citibank Bangladesh.

Augmented reality, virtual reality, and block-chains are being used not for just gaming purposes, he said, adding that the digital industry needs to adopt the tools for making citizens' lives easier.

All the stakeholders need to work together in their capacity through partnership and other models, he added.

Zakaria Swapan, CEO of iPay, the country's first online payment platform, said it has already established a paperless office to ensure cashless transaction.

He requested digitalisation of the KYC (know your customer) process and asked the banking regulator to replace the OTP (one-time password) system for payments with an alternative one.

Bangladesh has no comprehensive digital strategy, said Md Abdullah Al Mamoon, deputy managing director and chief operating officer of United Commercial Bank.

To ensure proper customer identification the country needs to ensure systems like India's Aadhaar identification card, which will speed up digitalisation, he added.

The country is using digitalisation only for consumption purpose and not for boosting production, said Fahim Mashroor, CEO of AjkerDeal.com.

He said a common payment interface needs to be created to connect all digital service providers.

Abul Kashem Md Shirin, managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd, said of the bank's total card transactions 80 percent is used for cash-outs and only 20 percent for payments.

“Cash is a cost for us. So, we are offering huge discounts and cashbacks for digital payments,” he added.

Kamal Quadir, CEO of bKash, called for policy consistency and said customers will not adopt digital services if they do not reap additional benefit from them.

“We need to make the service meaningful and valuable to users,” he added.

Connectivity needs to be enhanced and the supply chain financing needs to be accelerated, said Asikul Alam Khan, founder and CEO of PriyoShop.com.

Khaled Rahman, senior corporate finance manager at British American Tobacco Bangladesh; Arif Nezami, founder and CEO of Preneur Lab; Hussain M Elius, co-founder and CEO of Pathao; Quazi Zulquarnain, country lead of Uber Bangladesh; and Samad Miraly, co-founder of Startup Dhaka, also spoke.