[Attachment(s) from touhid faisal included below]
By - Professor Syed Ahsanul Alam Parvez
Prelude:
Globalization and rapid progress in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are bringing about fundamental changes in all aspects of our society. Remarkable changes have taken place in service sectors like
a) banking, b) hotels, c) hospitals, d) airlines, e) trains, f) buses, g) stock exchanges, h) news paper, i) tourism sector j) online job site k) e-education, l) e-library and other service sectors.
Changes in Government:
Similar changes are taking place in governments. Very recently our government introduced the district web portal so that citizens can remain more informed. Very slowly more and more government agencies are publishing their websites with limited information. Automations of our custom house is a good example of uses of ICT in e-service delivery through ICT.
Our response to these worldwide changes is to transform
Definitely Digital governance will call for increased IT uses and enhance better connectivity in public and private sector.
Using ICT to Better Serve Citizens:
E-Government is not simply adding an "e" to government. It requires that we fundamentally re-think all aspects of government services to see how we can take advantage of technology to deliver services online to citizens. It also means that we leverage on ICT to change the nature and quality of governance to ensure that citizens can enjoy the online services sitting at home and office. It is about achieving, what we like to call, making online as much e-services possible and simplify service delivery procedure.
The Digital Journey:
Our honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared her political commitment to transform
I refer here that we should gradually move towards a paperless office in the government sector. But we have to remember that after bathing the baby, we cannot throw the baby with the bathing water. We have to maintain hard copy of documents as back up till that time when data storage and data retrieval system in our country becomes dependable and full proof. In the second phase the emphasis subsequently should be shifted to inter-agency communication and co-ordination so as to provide integrated services to the public or citizens. I am referring here to transform our citizens to e-citizens, enjoying more and more services online both from the public and the private sector in the near future. In one of my report to the government, I have emphasized to create a number of Data Hubs to reduce redundancy in data capturing and promote data sharing within the Government. Very recently in
Delivering e-services Online:
In the area of e-service delivery, we may identify four (4) levels of e-service based on the depth of interaction between the citizens and Government to assist our public sector agencies in developing their e-services capability. The 4 levels can be denoted as
a) "Publish"- At the lowest level of "Publish", the interaction is one-way with the user receiving information online. b) "Interact", c) "Transact" and d) "Integrate"- At the "Integrate" level, the organizational complexity is hidden from the customer.
To implement Digital Bangladesh, service delivery organizations must strive to deliver online every service that can be delivered electronically. E-service delivery organizations should also aim to deliver every e-service at the Transact level online, unless impossible, in which case it shall be offered at the Interact level. The transaction can be carried out by ATM cards, debit cards, credit cards or any other type of bank cards available in our country.
To-date, less than 1% of all feasible public services are online only. To mention a few are:
a) Online banking, b) Online hotel reservations, c) online hospital reservations, d) online train ticketing,
e) online air ticketing, f)) online bus ticketing, g) online library, etc.
But the number of these services is less than 20 to the best of my knowledge. It is interesting to know that
Hundreds of services required by the citizens may be made available online that are organized around customers' needs. For this we need agencies to work to integrate information processes so as to provide a continuous online experience.
Pivotal to the quick and efficient development and deployment of e-services is developing a highly scalable and secure infrastructure layer, a rapid application development environment and a set of basic services such as payment, authentication and data exchange with legacy systems.
Delivering business services online:
In the business arena, services essential to the starting and the running of a business maybe also delivered online. This will helps promote greater productivity, efficiency, and convenience with simplified procedures and faster turnaround times. Issuance of
a) Trade license (TL),
b) TIN certificate,
c) Export license,
d) Import license,
e) Registrations of private company,
f) Membership certificate from Chambers of Commerce, and many others are examples of services that maybe given online. The application approval process involving different agencies maybe reduced to one third to that of the present.
Building a Digital Society:
Our Prime Ministers dream of a Digital Bangladesh is aimed to help citizens gain basic access to basic IT technologies. As such the government has to keep sharp eye to see if citizens are on the wrong side of the digital divide.
To build this "Digital Bangladesh", a term coined by our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina indicating towards a digital society, the government will have put in place various initiatives to ensure that there is sufficient public access and helping those who are away from the cities and with less financial means to have access to information highway.
The National ICT Policy 2009 is one such initiative to increase the ICT literacy of the nation as a whole. We have to run different programme to help the bureaucrats, academics, professionals, students, workers, home makers to learn the basic as how to get e-services or online services from the service providers. Initially they may have to be dependent on those who have IT literacy. Gradually, our IT literacy is increasing and use of ATMs, other online banking services, use of e-ticketing of air lines, buying train tickets online are the proofs of the slow diffusion of technology in our society. Very soon we will be able to buy bus tickets also online sitting at our home or office. Community service shall be increased by students and other IT literate segments to gradually literate the less privileged sections of the society.
From basic computer literacy to a IT trained workforce and gradually increasing the number of e-citizens is a process which might take time. But our progress has to be expedited to achieve our target to transform
Till today we could not develop a robust nationwide broadband infrastructure. To ensure that all our citizens including the under privileged section to enjoy the benefits of online service delivery, we have to establish extensive IT network throughout the nation.
Many eCitizen Help Centres have to be developed nationwide and each eCitizen Help Centre should be equipped with computers offering free Internet access to e-services. Interested volunteers should be motivated to become eCitizen Helpers to guide citizens, such as the elderly and IT-illiterate, who may need assistance to access to online services.
Connecting Citizens:
In building Digital Bangladesh, we inevitably will have to shape the expectations of our citizens.
Moving forward, there are two areas that has to be focused on to delight our citizens and to connect citizens.
Firstly, in the area of service delivery, service delivery organizations will have to deliver accessible quality online services. Government has to ensure that technology is affordable and everyone who wants to be online is able to do so.
Secondly, I believe that ICT can be leveraged on as a powerful tool to engage the citizens as stakeholders to bring citizens closer together. As with online services, the emergence of new technologies significantly widens the scope for consulting with citizens and to facilitate citizen participation. I suggest to explore forming new channels using ICT to build the infrastructure essential to nurture national bonding and facilitate the building of a stronger sense of belonging to the country. This will appeal to a populace that is becoming more comfortable in making use of electronic channels for work and play.
Moving forward, we shall focus on establishing basic levels online delivery of services to citizens and in doing so we need greater consultation and participation of citizen.
Conclusion:
ICT has been a key enabler to offer online services to our citizens and businesses.
Our government has to be committed to continue to leverage on ICT through constantly reviewing the processes, improving the quality and accessibility of our online services and to connect citizens to bring them closer together. Besides the availability of services online, it is equally important to consider their acceptance and usage by the public. The benefits of online service can only be reaped if the public regard online service as the norm in transacting with public and private sector enterprise.
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Author
Prof. Syed Ahsanul Alam is an internationally reputed policy strategist on e-Governance & Chairman, Department of Marketing,
He lectured widely at various Universities at home and abroad and has numerous International publication (See Internet) in his credit.
The Author may be reached at Fax :880-31-2550872,
E-mail:professorparvez@gmail.com
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