Re: [ALOCHONA] BB Governor pursues Tk 600cr digital plan for a private company

As we know that the Bangladesh Bank is the Bankers bank and it's main ONUS is to control the cash flow in the country controlling the inflation and credit awarded by schedule banks. The central bank never ever in the world's history jumps directly to  investment.

As Dr. Atiar and  another great Economist(who invented the terminology of jongi economy) Dr. Barakat are BAL drum beaters and "Chunga Fukaiing" for centuries and for their Chamchami rewarded the coveted posting. 

So, to prove further their worth as die hard Chamcha they are risking Public money to pay off the grass root level BAL activist. This is plain and simple equation. The BALIST may disagree but this is hidden agenda of these two BAL stalwarts.

Faruque Alamgir

On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 7:20 AM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:

 

BB Governor pursues Tk 600cr digital plan for a private company

Abdur Rahman Khan

 

Though the Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor deserves appreciation for promoting the proposal to set up 10,000 digital centres for providing monetary transaction services at the grassroots level, question has arisen about the very intention in selecting a particular private business enterprise having no previous experience of handling a huge financial transaction but a dismal record of failure in a pilot digital project of preparing voter's ID card.

   Terming it "a visionary project", Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman said the digital centres will be set up under SME programme, which have raised some vital questions regarding the whole programme.
   The Governor, having some special fascination for the project promoter, apparently was in a hurry to call the meeting on a weekly holiday, Saturday, July 3, 2010, to convince the Deputy Managing Directors and SME heads of all banks and non-banking financial institutions in mobilising Taka 600 crore for Digital Centre project as pursued by Digital Technologies Limited, a private business enterprise.

   Engineer Mozammel Huq, Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Technologies Limited, who also identifies himself as a columnist and ICT specialist, presented the concept paper in the gathering of financial leaders claiming that the Prime Minister's office "has given recognition" to his idea as "the need of the hour" and offered necessary cooperation.
   He also claimed that Bangladesh Bank has provided the Digital Technologies with necessary approval to establish the Multi-Bank Electronic Payment Network (MBEPN) with the "moral consent" to refinance the project at 5 per cent interest rate.

   Mozammel Haque, the project designer, has also mentioned in his presentation that Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has provided his company with necessary permission to operate digital payment and information network while the Local Government Ministry "has agreed" to allocate land for establishing Digital Centres in the business and growth centres.
   According to the proposal, Digital Centre is a "Social Business Model" and a "Nationwide Service Delivery Network" (NSDN) designed by Digital Technologies Ltd (DTL) to implement the vision of "Digital Bangladesh". The Digital Centre for each 15,000 people on an average will be established in phases by 2011.
   Digital Centres will deal with all money payments from government to the people (G2P), people to people (P2P) and people to government (P2G) including salary payment, pension payment, freedom fighters' allowance, food for works payment, students' scholarship, all utility bill payment, and foreign remittance disbursement.
   The minimum monthly income of each Digital Centre will be Tk. 54,000 against the monthly expenditure of Tk. 44,000 leaving an operational surplus of Tk 10, 000 per month, the project proposal mentions.
   
   Pilot project
   Aftab-ul-Islam, chairman of SME Foundation, suggested setting up the centres as pilot project-based programme to review and evaluate its output.
   The minimum monthly income of each Digital Centre will be Tk 54,000 against the monthly expenditure of Tk 44,000 leaving an operational surplus of Tk 10, 000 per month, the project proposal mentions.
   "If all these monetary operations are to be conducted through a these Digital Centres, then what would be the use of 6,000 to 7,000 SME branches of all the banks in the country, questioned one of the bankers who participated in the seminar on Digital Centre.
   There are efficient NGO's like BRAC, Grameen Bank or ASA who have been doing well over the decades in credit handling business. Why the government do not try to involve them in these centres, he posed a question.
   
   Others ignored
   There are many reputed IT companies in the country who have not been involved in the programme. When asked, the executive Director of Bangladesh Computer Council said he has gone through the news item but the council is in no way involved in the project.
   The government at local level is developing the union information centres to provide IT-based facilities at the grassroots level which also can be used to function as digital centres, said an official.
   Aftab-ul-Islam, chairman of SME Foundation, suggested that to test the viability of the project, it should be started as a pilot project first and then evaluate the outcome before going for a country-wide operation.

 

http://www.weeklyholiday.net/front.html#01

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