Govt guns for major ICT goal

As part of the government's move to create a better business environment in the country, different authorities are taking up a number of major steps ranging from installation of a private sector submarine cable to launching of a national communications satellite.
Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) has also agreed to a proposal of Bangladesh Better Business Forum (BBBF) to drastically cut Internet bandwidth cost in line with the charges in the neighbouring countries within the next two months.
Other moves stimulated by the BBBF include awarding of Internet telephony licences to Internet service providers (ISPs) within next six months, setting up small scale software technology parks at economic zones within six-nine months and setting up a 17-acre ICT village in Mohakhali within six months.
Bangladesh Telecommu-nications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), which is leading the ICT related projects, yesterday declared guidelines for the request for proposal (RFP) for the second submarine cable, inviting primary proposals from private investors by June 15.
"The second submarine cable project demands private investment between $40 million and $250 million, depending on options and routes to be offered by the bidders," said a competent BTRC source.
The cost for the satellite project is yet to be outlined as its plan is still in the primary stage, the source added.
BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Manzurul Alam said the commission is now working on the orbit data for the satellite. "We had the orbit available for our satellite long ago. We should have launched this satellite by now," he said.
"The satellite may be launched as a joint venture or by the government. This will be worked out," he said, adding that it will take one to two years for the country to prepare for the satellite and five to eight years to have this communications satellite operating in the orbit.
"We have tremendous prospect in the ICT sector. This will be our main foreign exchange earner and employment source," Manzurul said.
Headed by Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, the BBBF sits today for the third time to discuss and decide on the "doable" projects. The forum was launched in November last year.
Five thematic working groups under this 38-member private-public forum have finalised a set of recommendations in this regard. The groups are financing business, infrastructure, macro-economic policy, business launching and operation and manpower efficiency improvement. All the infrastructure related steps are ICT related.
The BBBF recommendations were sent to the ministries concerned last month to see if they can be implemented. The ministries have now given their feedbacks along with timelines required for implementing these plans.
The feedbacks and proposals will be placed before the forum's meeting today.
A host of changes that the forum is hammering include establishing a central e-governance centre for effective implementation of e-commerce/digital business and allow credit card transaction for e-commerce.
A technical committee of Bangladesh Bank has meanwhile submitted to the higher authorities a report on setting up an electronic payment gateway system. In addition, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has taken up an e-governance action plan under "Strengthening the ICT capacity of PMO", a project funded by the UNDP.
It has also been decided that the Ministry of Science and ICT will act as the central body to ensure e-governance.
All government and local websites must be available through local Internet Exchanges, the BBBF suggests.
The BBBF recommended extending tax holidays by five years to software and IT enabled services. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has assured that appropriate measures in this regard will be incorporated in the next budget.
The BBBF also suggested that the BTTB reduce international and domestic Internet bandwidth cost by 75 percent of the existing rate. The BTTB has assured that the cost will be "reduced to a rational level" comparing with the cost in neighbouring countries.
The forum proposed reducing VAT and service charge for Internet to 1.5 percent instead of 15 percent. The NBR agreed to lower it to 4.5 percent in the next budget as a "test".
In response to another proposal, the finance division decided that all the ministries and departments will have 2 percent of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) budget dedicated for ICT.
On launching of the country's own satellite, the BTRC said Bangladesh should launch its own communications satellite. The commission is currently working on designing its licence. The ICT ministry on the other hand asked the government to identify who would spearhead the satellite project.
2ND SUBMARINE CABLE
Following a report of its technical committee last year, the BTTB held an open discussion on the prospects of and investment in the second submarine cable. Representatives of 65 IT-related companies participated in that discussion.
Based on the response, the BTRC yesterday floated the "guidelines for RFP to build, maintain and operate additional Submarine Cable Systems in Bangladesh", seeking primary offers from private investors.
"Presently SEA-ME-WE-4 is the only submarine cable through which Bangladesh is connected overseas. The quest for redundancy, diversity and capacity enhancement, in an adequately competitive environment, has led BTRC to look for additional submarine cable to be hosted by private entrepreneurs," the guideline says, adding that this endeavour is focused on revolutionising the bandwidth market and its usage, thereby bringing in a significant qualitative change in the ICT arena of the country.
Private entrepreneurs will submit RFPs to come up with a primary proposal to build, maintain and operate the new systems.
"It could be one cable or two," said a BTRC source, adding, "We are open to various options--that is why we are not fixed to a single configuration. If we receive satisfactory RFPs by June 15, we might take another one month to 45 days to accept applications for licences for the submarine cables and then we will award the licences."
He added that the project will begin by this year and the licence will be issued for 20 years initially.
The primary proposal should include company profile of the applicant and all its partners, company profile of all consortium members if relevant, company profile of the cable laying company, ownership arrangement etc. In a consortium arrangement, Bangladeshi ownership should be minimum 25 percent while in case of partnership or joint venture at least 51 percent of shares are to be held by Bangladeshis.
The second submarine cable is required because the present bandwidth demand of 3.28 gigabyte (GB) is projected to shoot up to 15.5GB by 2011, which will saturate Bangladesh's bandwidth in the present cable. Besides, the second cable will ensure redundancy and reliability.