E-Governance in Bangladesh

Introduction:

E-Governance is a powerful tool for bringing about change to government processes

in the developing world. E-governance operates at the cross roads between
Information and Communication Technology and government processes, and can be
divided into three overlapping domains: e-administration, eservices and e-society. In
order to be successful, e-governance must be firmly embedded in the existing
government processes, must be supported, both politically and technically, by the
governments, and must provide users with reasons to use these on-line domains.

Methodology:

Though it is a term paper but this study is one kind of research work. No statistical
tools or techniques are use here but a simple questionnaire. It’s a descriptive
assignment, a narrative description on the collected information from Books, Journals,
Net Blogs, Websites and Field works. The questionnaire was prepared on the basis of
the required information.

In order to make it formal and comprehensive report I have gone through a marvelous
experience while collecting and combining all information from Primary and
Secondary Data source:

Primary Data Source:

I have interviewed 70 students from 8 different department
of Bangladesh University of professionals for the purpose
of this study. In this purpose I have interviewed them
directly, mailed questionnaire or through Facebook
questions.

Secondary Data source:

For the specific and defined information I have followed
the following sources;

 Websites
 Blogs
 Books
 Reports
 Journals
 Newspaper etc.

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Theoretical Framework:

Governance:

Generally Governance means the continuous exercise of authority over a particular

system unit, where there some visible and invisible actors and sectors act together for
the betterment of a particular purpose.
Governance is concerned with overseeing the responsible, legal, ethical, transparent
and effective achievement of national or organizational goals. Governance deals with
the formation and stewardship of the formal and informal rules, laws, regulations and
policies that regulate delivery of services in the public and private sectors.
It can be said, a system of government concentrating on effective and accountable
control over country and an open-legitimate relationship between the civil society,
private sectors and the state.

E-governance:

It is the use of a range of modern information and communication technologies such

as internet, local area networks, mobiles etc by Governments to improve effectiveness,
efficiency, service delivery and to promote democracy.

E-governance is defined as the application of electronic means in—

The interaction between government and citizens and government and businesses, as
well as in internal government operations to simplify and improve democratic,
government and business aspects of Governance.

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The term interaction stands for the delivery of government products and services,
exchange of information, communication, transactions and system integration.
E-governance is perhaps the second revolution in public management, which may
transform not only the way in which most public services are delivered, but also the
fundamental relationship between government and citizen.

Broadly, e-governance involves the use of information and communication

technologies (ICTs) to transact the business of government.
At the level of service, e-governance promises
 A full service available 24 hours a day
 And seven days a week
 Greater accessibility
 The capability to obtain government services without visiting
government offices and
 Reduced service cost.

Strategic Objectives:

The strategic objective of e-governance is to support and simplify governance for all
parties - government, citizens and businesses.
E-governance uses electronic means to support and stimulate good governance.
Therefore the objectives of e-governance are similar to the objectives of good
governance. Good governance can be seen as an exercise of economic, political, and
administrative authority to better manage affairs of a country at all levels, national and
local
The use of ICTs can connect all three parties and support processes and activities. It
provides a common framework and direction in the implementation of Government
Policies for the following:

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  Across the public sector organizations and institutions (G2G)
 Between Government and the Business Community (G2B)
 Between Government and Citizens (G2C)

Regarding e-government, the distinction is made between the objectives for

internally focused processes (operations) and objectives for externally focused
services.
External strategic objectives. The external objective of e-government is to
satisfactorily fulfill the public’s needs and expectations on the front-office
side, by simplifying their interaction with various online services. The use of
ICTs in government operations facilitates speedy, transparent, accountable,
efficient and effective interaction with the public, citizens, business and other
agencies.

Internal strategic objectives. In the back-office, the objective of e-government

in government operations is to facilitate a speedy, transparent, accountable,
efficient and effective process for performing government administration
activities. Significant cost savings (per transaction) in government operations
can be the result.

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 G2G
Citizen Business
Central Government
NGOs
G2C G2B
G2G Civil
Local Government Society
G2G

Figure: Interactions between main groups in e-governance

E-governance, Bangladesh Perspective:

Early Efforts: ICT as a sector:

The realization that ICTs can be an important enabler for Bangladesh’s development is
not new. The early efforts in 1991, in this regard were directed towards developing
ICT as an export sector and a potential area of employment generation for ICT
graduates.
One of the most recognized efforts in this regard was taken in 1997. A committee was
formed with Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury as its convener to explore the
potential of an export oriented software industry in Bangladesh. The committee
comprised of representatives from the government, industry, and academia, which
submitted its report in September 14, 1997. Several of the recommendations of the
committee were implemented which, in many ways, shaped the modern discourse
around ICT in Bangladesh. Establishment of Bangladesh Association of Software &
Information Services (BASIS), formation of ICT Task force headed by the Prime
Minister in 2000, substantial reduction of government levies on ICT imports, can be
traced back to the recommendations made in that report. The role of the role of
Bangladesh Computer Shamity (BCS) also played a part in implementing these
recommendations.

Emergence of Digital Bangladesh

“Digital Bangladesh by 2021” emerged as part of “Charter for Change”—the election

manifesto of Bangladesh Awami League for the 9th Parliamentary Election. The
declaration was made in December 12, 2008 for the election held in December 29,
2008. Though a date is attached to this agenda, it is interpreted as a long-term vision
rather than a target. This forward-looking vision quickly captured people’s
imagination and became the cornerstone of the entire election manifesto.

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Indeed, this is probably the first time in the history of Bangladesh that the vision of
poverty reduction and human development leveraging ICTs was proposed that
received instant support from common citizens.
In many ways, the “Digital Bangladesh” vision took the policy makers and
practitioners by surprise. While the basic premise of the vision is not new, the all-
encompassing nature of the vision demands a fundamental shift of mindset of the
implementers. It not only needs thinking anew but new ways of thinking.

Some appreciated steps:

In digitalizing Bangladesh there are some Government’s steps which have really been
appreciated. Those are follows…

150 dollar laptop production:

Government has taken a great step to take the rural students closure to the world.
Bangladesh is going to produce student laptop under “1Laptop per student” project
which will cost Tk. 10,000-12,000 in Bangladesh currency. This project has started
from May 2011. If this step comes to success then a lot of Bangladeshi rural students
can be taken to touch of the knowledge of internet. The best thing about this,
thousands of rural students will get it for Tk3000-9000 only.

Union Info Centers:

The main goal of UISC program is to ensure that information and service can reach
to the door steps of ordinary people by using Information Technology. With this, the
implementation process of Digital Bangladesh vision 2021 has started.
On the other hand, according to the decision of local government division, within the
current month of June, 1000 Union Parishad and 2000 entrepreneurs have been
selected from these Unions so that another 1000 service centers can be set up. These
entrepreneurs would have to invest a certain amount of money and then get
contracted with the Union Parishads to carry out their activities.
Now people getting all information and services from Union Info Centers like
• Agriculture
• Disaster Management
• Driving License
• Education
• Environment and Forests of Bangladesh
• Health Systems
• Income Tax
• Law and Order
• Mobile Banking

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 • Passport
• Recruitment
• Visa
• Utility Services
• University Admission

Picture: Rural people can now talk face to face with their family member abroad
through Video Chatting.

Earlier, people of the union had no options for such information. They had to go
upazila headquarter for different government forms like passport and driving license
but they can now collect those from the UISC, which has given the people of the
union a new lease of life

Automation of Internal Processes:

Bangladesh Bank began to computerize its functions almost at the same time most
government offices started investing in automation. However, the Bank is only
among the handfuls that have been successful in integrating ICT into the core
business processes of the institute. Today it is one of the most fully computerized
public institutions in the country. The current system actually automates most of the
Banks operational processes and some of the most important strategic processes
including monitoring of commercial bank transactions.

E-purjee
The moment the purjee is issued, the visibility in the mobile phones of the farmers
through the software of the sugar mills instantly is the e-purjee. In other words, to

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 deliver the information concerning purjee using the information technology is known
as e-purjee. Similar to the previous purjee system, e-purjee also contains the basic
information of the sugarcane growers’ e.g. name, address, passbook no, name of the
unit and center, date of the delivery and the amount of the sugarcanes. The difference
is that, in the e-purjee service the purjee is sent to the sugarcane growers through the
SMS based mobile service

from the server of the sugar mills, where all the information of the farmers (name,
mobile phone number, quantity of sugarcane, passbook number, name of the unit and
the centre). Formerly, it took one or two days for the farmers to receive the purjee.
Even in some cases, the purjee reached in the farmer's hands after the validity of the
purjee was over, whereas in the prevailing e-purjee system, the farmers are notified
instantly about the purjee issuance. Moreover, through the e-purjee service, it is now
possible to inform the farmers about the payment of the sugarcanes as well.

E-birth registration:
The electronic Birth Registration Information System (BRIS) was introduced on a
pilot basis in Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC), one of the oldest municipalities in
Bangladesh. BRIS is based on a distributed application architecture, with four clients
and one server connected via a local area network.
BRIS, as its name suggests, registers births electronically, providing a basic citizen
identity, and building this with other data into a population database that can be
shared with other public agencies. For example, the Department of Health uses the
system to help ensure immunization of all children, with vaccination lists provided
for health workers and immunization schedules provided for parents on the basis of
registration data. The system could also be used to assist with the process of school
enrolment. BRIS works in Bengali, although in can also generate certificates and
reports in English.
BRIS has removed duplication and redundancy from birth/registration records
through centralized storage of data. It has automated searching, sorting, processing
and reporting tasks (such as those associated with immunization) and very
significantly reduced the time taken for such tasks. Error rates have also been

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 reduced, with a combined ID number and barcoding system. A CD-ROM of BRIS
data has been created; as well as providing backup would also allow transfer and
reuse of registration data outside the LAN system. Both registration and
immunization rates have increased since the introduction of the system.

Online Investment Registration System:

Both domestic and foreign investment is a must for industrialization. On last
December (Dec 2010) Board of Investment has introduced Online Investment
Registration System. Online registration of the BoI would help create an enabling
atmosphere for business and investment in the country. The new system will simplify
investment registration procedures for local and foreign investors with a new online
registration service system by reducing time and unnecessary documentation and
hassle It will attract more investors from home and abroad and prop up the
investment activities in particular

E-results:
Staring with the SSC and HSC results now each and every public exam result are
published in internet and mobile SMS, So students or applicants need not to go to
center for collecting result, he can get it from his/her mobile phone.

Bangladesh Hajj Management Portal:

The Ministry of Religious Affairs, GoB introduced the Hajj Web Site in 2002 to
service ten and thousands of pilgrims who go to Mecca to perform holy Hajj. During
the Hajj, the website also acts as an important information portal for the family
members of the pilgrims and other interested persons and organizations. One of the
best examples of a Public-Private Partnership project, the site provides timely and
reliable information to a large segment of the population.

Railway ticketing
Technically, Railway ticketing might not be a simpler e-government project but from
people’s convenience perspective, this is one of the important one. Bangladesh
Railway outsourced the job to a local IT vendor. With a few technical hiccups the
system was put to operation in 1996. The vendor owned operated and maintained the
system till early 2002. The system was then transferred to Bangladesh Railway, who
later decided to outsource its operation to another private vendor.

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Government E-forms:
Now about every Government forms are available in corresponding website.
Accessing government forms online is made possible by the Prime Minster’s Office
of Bangladesh though a project funded by UNDP Bangladesh. This not only saves
time but also the cost and hassles associated with the traveling to the government
offices located at a distance.

Mobile Money Order Service:

Even a few years ago Bangladesh Post Office was famous for its slow services. But
it’s really true that now it serves the fastest money order service in Bangladesh. It
only takes 2-3 minutes to send money through this service and it’s available at any
post office in Bangladesh. This service was introduced on May 2010. People can
send up to Tk50, 000 at a very few cost of Tk27 for first thousand and Tk10 for later.

E-text book for Primary and Secondary level

At least 106 textbooks of primary and secondary levels have been converted to e-
books, electronic version of textbooks, published by the National Curriculum and
Textbook Board (NCTB) and uploaded on “www.ebook.gov.bd” with the technical
assistance of Access to Information (A2I) of Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
Students can log on to the website and flip through the e-books just like the printed
ones. Besides, they can also download any page they want. The e-books have options
to zoom in on pages and bookmark any of those, said A2I programme officials.
Anyone can download the contents for free and read those also on mobile phones.
The students, who take the primary terminal and secondary examinations abroad,
will benefit greatly from it as they will be able to download textbooks from the
website.
In January last year, soft copies of 139 textbooks were put in PDF version on the
NCTB website that drew much attention of both students and guardians at home and
abroad. But, the new website with e-books would be much easier to use.

E-College Admission:
From this year admission in college will be through mobile sms, that will reduce
student’s run and line for the forms. It will ensure accountability and clarity in
admission and lessen the corruption. 19colleges of Dhaka board and 9 colleges of
Comilla board are taken into this first step.

SWOT analysis:

Going through the field study and some journals here is given four SWOT analyses
with a focus on the following aspects of e-governance in Bangladesh:

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 1) Economic
2) Social
3) Political
4) Technological

Economic Aspects
Economical aspects related to e-governance are funding, cost-savings, business
models, e-Commerce, and spin-offs of e-governance.

Economic – Implementation and maintaining e-governance solutions

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
E-Governance good Investors Cost efficiency
Corruption
argument for through e governance
external funding Budget control
New business
Transparency for
businesses More efficiency tax
(procurement) revenues

Social Aspects

Examples of some of the social aspects related to e-governance are people, (level of)
education, employment, income, digital divide, rural areas vs. cities, rich vs. poor,
literacy, IT skills.

Social aspects – Implementation and maintaining e-governance solutions

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
People eager to learn Basic education Employment Brain drain IT skilled
IT skills poor: trainers needed increases people after training

Skilled people No IT literacy Education system Resistance of people

possible export improve
product Low literacy Digital divide
People learn
Different languages structural job Privacy

Public acceptance of Cheap manpower

self-service models widely available

Skill shortage: Promotion of internet

competition with
private sector Better healthcare
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 Political Aspects

Political aspects related to e-governance are e.g. the formulated strategy and policy,
laws and legislation, leadership, decision making processes, funding issues,
international affairs, and political stability.

Political aspects – Implementation and maintaining of e-governance solutions

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
Combination with Budget Raise external Bureaucracy
democratization funding
reforms Cyber laws not Piracy, misuse
Internet as pull available Show competitive
edge Corruption
factor
No problem owner
Modern image within government Transparency causes Maintaining disorder,
natural change of no transparency
No expertise about processes
technology Political instability
Reinvent government Resistance
Slow decision making
process

Hierarchy in
organizations

Short term approach

due to elections

Integration and reform

Technological Aspects

As discussed in the previous chapter, technology will be a bottleneck for e-governance

in developing countries. Technological aspects involve software, hardware,
infrastructure, telecom, IT skilled people, and maintenance, safety and security issues.

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Technological aspects – Implementation and maintaining e-governance solutions
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
nd
Everything is new: Lack of IT standards 2 hand hardware Dependency of
no negative legacy available technology
Shortage IT skilled
Leapfrogging people Use one standard
possible
Internet as driving High cost of internet
(pull) factor
Heterogeneous data
Lack of IT standards?

Costs of software
licenses

Recommendations:

We can say Bangladesh is crossing the third stage of implementing e-governance out
of four. Considering that we have to notice the following sectors carefully.

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General Recommendations for e-Governance:

Push for a comprehensive regulatory framework for e-Governance: There is an urgent

need for a comprehensive regulatory/legal framework for realization of governance.
Some of the issues to be included in the framework are IPR laws to protect intellectual
property, laws for acceptance of documents in electronic format (such as downloaded
documents), laws against cyber-terrorism to protect against unauthorized hacking,
laws to enable electronic authentication. Also needed is an Electronic Certification
Authority designated by the government which should have the authority to provide
electronic certification to organization and individuals.

Create and retain adequate IT human resource: There needs to be a well-planned

program to create a greater number of IT human resource in the country. The number
of seats in the computer science and engineering departments of universities needs to
be increased. Steps need to be taken to monitor the quality of training institutes.
Government certification programs to test individuals need to be arranged for
maintaining quality of IT-related diplomas. Efforts should also be taken to retain the
massive number of IT-trained personnel Bangladesh is losing each year.

Invest in public IT literacy: IT literacy programs should start early in schools

because it is at that tender age that students are most open to new ideas and
technologies. The government should also arrange, encourage and subsidize IT
vocational training to create an IT-literate society.

Encourage local software companies to prepare themselves: The local software

companies should take steps to become more prepared for handling government IT
projects, especially in areas of project management. The software companies may also
need to cooperate among themselves to jointly handle large-scale e-Government
projects. Individual software companies in Bangladesh mostly do not have the human
resource capacity to handle government projects. The government should take steps to
give public projects to software companies so that they gain needed experience for
larger projects.

Invest in reliable supply of electricity: Steps need to be taken to explore alternative

sources of power or alternative means of power generation. Different developing
countries are experimenting with solar power, bicycle-generated power etc.
Bangladesh should also take similar steps.

Deregulation of ISP and telephony service providers: The ISP and telephone
service provision must be deregulated to allow for greater competition and lower
price. Also, VoIP is a popular means of communicating with the outside world, but it
is still illegal under current regulations. VoIP should be made legal as soon as possible

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to allow greater use of computers for everyday activities of people and generate
people’s interest in ICTs.

Conclusion:

“It’s always easier to set up a vision than its completion”. The current
government has resurrected that vision and made it ready for the 21st
century highly globalize world and names it Digital Bangladesh. Although
Bangladesh has its own limitations in resources, capacity and knowledge,
the country’s potential in human resources can be tapped through
appropriate use of ICT tools.
With lack of Power supply and Corruption in public sector, in my study
63% of respondents are quite pessimistic about their digital Bangladesh by
2021; but the taken projects say Government is committed towards
reaching the goal of a knowledge based and middle income country by
2021. With an actionable ICT Policy 2009, Right to Information Act and
ICT Act that provide the enabling environment for citizens’ information
access and e-commerce, a network of proactive and ready change agents in
the Ministries, districts and upazilas, a number of initiatives that
demonstrate the true concept and benefits of Digital Bangladesh, a
technology-savvy young workforce ready to be guided and led, the country
is staring at a tremendous opportunity to leapfrog. Guidance and assistance
from development partners can greatly accelerate this journey.

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References:

1. Alam Mahbubul, Ahmed Kawsar, E-Governance Initiatives in Bangladesh

Ministry of Water Resources, IICT, BUET.

2. Backus Michiel, E-Governance and Developing Countries Introduction and

examples.

3. Bannister Frank, New Problems for Old? An exploration of egovernance,

Trinity College, Dublin.

4. Hoque Shah Mohammad Sanaul, E-Governance in Bangladesh: A Scrutiny

from Citizens' Perspective, Bangladesh Public Administration Training
Centre (BPATC) Savar, Dhaka

5. Kalsi N. S., Kiran Ravi, Vaidya S. C., Effective e-Governance for Good
Governance in India, Vol.5 No. 1 January 2009 Pp. 212-229

6. Karim Md. Abdul, Digital Bangladesh for Good governance, Bangladesh

Development Forum, Feb, 2010

7. K.A.M. Morshed, E-Governance: Bangladesh Perspective, April 2007.

8. Realizing the Vision of Digital Bangladesh through E Governance,

Bangladesh Enterprise Institute. July 2010.

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