The government has initiated a pilot project to turn Bagerhat’s Fakirhat into a ‘smart’ upazila - one that utilises all the advances in modern technology to achieve the best service delivery for its residents. Besides public establishments, the people of the upazila have also started becoming digital citizens thanks to their adoption of modern technology. Local administrators, public representatives and politicians are working round the clock to ensure sustainable development of Fakirhat. The information was made public at an event held at Betaga Field of the upazila commemorating Betaga Day. Read more: ICT & Digital Technology to rule in new-look education system Attending the event as chief guest, Moloy Chowdhury, Additional Secretary of Local Government Division and Project Manager of Fakirhat Upazila Management and Development Project, said that it’s the people who are actually running the local government. “People need to develop themselves on their own to strengthen the local government. The education, health, agriculture and social works sectors of Betaga union have undergone massive development in recent years. Besides establishing good governance, accountability has also been ensured here. We’ll follow the Betaga Model to develop other parts of the country,” Moloy said. Read more: Govt plans to revitalise ICT sector Swapan Dash, Chairman of Fakirhat Upazila Parishad, said that after Gazipur, Fakirhat is the second place in the country where the government has launched its smart piloting program. “All the eight unions of the upazila are providing services digitally. We’re trying our best to build a smart Fakirhat,” Swapan said. Md Monwar, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Fakirhat, said that the people of the upazila have wholeheartedly accepted the Prime Minister’s idea of a smart Bangladesh. “A total of 54 government offices in Fakirhat have been digitalised till now. The uses of e-documents (Electronic Documents) and d-documents (Digital Documents) are ensuring smart government services. The government is providing a modern experience to the people of Fakirhat through the use of digital technology,” said Monwar. Read more: President Hamid wants digital transformation of Bangladesh courts Dr Shah Mohammad Mohibullah, Health and Family Planning Officer of Fakirhat, said that the health sector in the upazila has been fully digitalized. “We’re keeping information about the patients and their illnesses in digital databases. These databases will fix how much medicine and food the people of Fakirhat will receive from the government next year. Doctors are treating patients through telemedicine at community clinics, while birth and death registrations are also being filed digitally. All in all, the health sector of Fakirhat is widely accepting what technology has to offer,” said Mohibullah. Shupta Majumder, an Assistant Teacher of Betaga Model Girls High School, said that her school is reaping the benefits of the government’s smart piloting program. Read more: AL govt turned country into ‘Digital Bangladesh’, says PM “While giving lessons using projectors, we’re also using various online tools to educate our students who are competent enough to use digital technology,” Shupta said. The event was presided over by Md Yunus Ali, Chairman of Betaga Union Parishad. Amit Ray Chowdhury, Treasurer of Khulna University, Md Shahinuzzaman, Deputy Director of Local Government division, among others, spoke at the event. Read more: ICT division to digitize 73 libraries, says Palak

Despite the Covid-induced disruptions in the global labor market with millions of job losses, Bangladesh managed to prevent employment shrinkage and retain its  growth levels owing to its rapid digitalisation, said Prime Minister's ICT Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy. He made this observation in an article, carried by The Washington Times headlined 'Digital leaps helped Bangladesh navigate the pandemic'. "Many industries and governments are struggling to adapt. But in Bangladesh, a government plan to modernize and digitize its economy, education sector, and health care has provided some answers," he observed. Also read:Bangladesh has no strong opposition due to conspiracies of dictators: Joy Reflecting on benefits of the country's digital transformation, Joy said, "The Digital Bangladesh initiative, which started to be implemented 2009, quickly increased internet access and paved the way for multifaceted economic development. In short order, Digital Bangladesh replaced slow, paper-based government services with easy-to-use internet and smartphone-based programs." "The plan worked. The government created a network of more than 8,500 Digital Centers that provided online services from cradle to grave. In 2008, those services were all but inaccessible; only 800,000 people in Bangladesh had access to the internet. Now, Bangladesh boasts more than 120,000,000 internet users. The internet covers 98% of the country," he added. Referring to a gamut of government initiatives in the virtual sphere, including 86000 digital classrooms and training for 1.5 million students in information and communications technology (ICT), he mentioned that information technology exports have soared from about $25 million in 2008 to $2 billion in 2021. "Indeed, freelancing is booming in Bangladesh. The country is the world’s second-largest supplier of online freelancers. According to a survey conducted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue, 50,000 Facebook-based entrepreneurs live in Bangladesh. With about 43 million Facebook accounts in Bangladesh, the platform provides business opportunities on a broad scale. It also proved to be a resilient employment model during the pandemic as work shifted away from an in-person office environment," he further said. Also read:History says religion card cannot be played on Bengali people for long: Joy Appreciating the government initiative to launch Bangabandhu-I satellite, he remarked that Bangladesh’s first geostationary communication satellite, Bangabandhu-1, has accelerated digital work. The satellite, which was launched in 2018, extends Bangladesh’s internet coverage to its remotest regions, allowing even rural Bangladeshis to receive telemedicine support, e-learning, and e-banking. "Freelance jobs include computer programming, web design, tax preparation, search engine optimization, and marketing. Asia has become the number-one region for providing outsourcing services to the rest of the world," he added. Bangladesh’s youthful population (nearly 65% are under the age of 25) is well-positioned to take advantage of Digital Bangladesh and the new types of employment it affords. Bangladesh retooled its educational system and now graduates 500,000 digital workers annually, Joy further said. "The fruit borne by Digital Bangladesh ripened at just the right time to address the economic ravages of COVID-19. As the world was still trying to figure out what the new workplace looked like, Bangladesh provided a model because of its rapid digitization and the transition to remote work that it enabled," he concluded.

Participants at the recent Huawei Asia-Pacific Railway Forum 2021 – "Smart Rail, Better Future Mobility" – explored the innovations to achieve operational efficiency for urban mass transit systems, particularly through driverless operations and workflow management. The event attracted more than 1,300 railway industry customers, partners, experts, and media from across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. READ: Huawei, partners release 5G White Paper Core Huawei railway industry customers and partners – including the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation, Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Limited, and professional services firm Arup Group Limited – participated in a panel discussion, sharing their experiences on the importance of achieving operational efficiency for urban mass transit systems, particularly through driverless operations and workflow management. Aaron Wang, Senior Vice-President of Huawei APAC Enterprise Business Group, addressed the challenges unfolded by the pandemic, noting that such challenges have also been converted into opportunities for all industries. READ: Huawei donates digital equipment to unprivileged children of Obhizatrik School "As a global ICT solution provider, Huawei helps customers such as Singapore's Land Transport Authority, Hong Kong MTR, Turkey TCDD, and Germany's Deutsche Bahn to accelerate their digitalisation by integrating new technologies with traditional infrastructure," Aaron added.

Bangladesh should improve internet quality and accessibility    to reap the benefit of digitalisation in trade and services, said experts at a virtual dialogue on Monday. They said Bangladesh should increase internet affordability, ensure quality internet and ICT skills development, reduce digital divide and urgently address policy gaps related to trade in digital services. Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Bangladesh jointly arranged the dialogue on ‘’Trade in Services in the Digital Age.” “Not only accessibility to the internet, but also the quality of internet is extremely important for the delivery of digital services,” said Dr Ratnakar Adhikari, Executive Director for Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Talking about the internet affordability, he said the internet price is relatively high in Bangladesh. According to the Affordability Drivers Index by Alliance for Affordable Internet, Bangladesh ranks relatively better among LDCs, but the countries like Senegal, Cambodia, Rwanda and Nepal are ahead of Bangladesh in terms of affordability, said Dr Adhikari. READ: 170,000 schools to be connected with high speed internet by 2030: Palak Dr Selim Raihan, Executive Director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) questioned the regulatory framework in Bangladesh for digital trade. He highlighted how exploitation of loopholes in the regulations by existing businesses leads to sufferings for both the customers and the new businesses. Syed Almas Kabir, President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) said digital payment needs to be flourished in Bangladesh to ensure a complete process of digital trade. He said some 95-96 per cent internet users now have to depend on mobile operators, while only 4-5 per cent on broadband internet. “If we want to provide services digitally, they (the people) actually need a high speed network or broadband network…… The transmission cost is very high and that is actually creating a digital divide between the rural and urban areas,” he said. He, however, said amid the internet affordability problem, the digital payment has increased from only 15 per cent to 32-35 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic. “So, that is a good sign. That is why I want to propose to the government to incentivize the digital transaction,” he said. In order to promote the digital transaction, Almas Kabir proposed to provide cash back incentive to all kinds of digital transactions for the next 3-5 years, keep all kinds of digital transactions out the purview of VAT and make the digital payment mandatory for all government fees. About ICT skills development, he said there is a gap between academia and the industry. “We need to minimize the gap.” He said some 22,000 students graduate every year from the computer science and engineering subjects, but they have to go through a training process for the next 3-6 months to become employable. “If we want to reduce this gap, we need to incorporate the skill development training in their four-year academic curriculum,” said the BASIS President. CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun, who moderated the dialogue, said the expanding cross-border tradability of services is opening new opportunities for national economies and individuals in the 4IR revolution era. CPD Distinguished Fellow Professor Mustafizur Rahman focused on the need of getting engaged in global discourse since it is also about competing in the domestic market with foreign goods. He recommended that Bangladesh should have a comprehensive trade and industrial policy that reflect all the important issues regarding digital services and e-commerce. READ: Brief, global internet outages blamed on software bug General Manager of Payment Systems Department at Bangladesh Bank Md. Mezbaul Haque said the E-commerce sector of Bangladesh is dominated by F-commerce. Such businesses are not under the formal banking system causing a major barrier to digital payments. He said there is interoperability from a bank to another bank and bank to MFS but not between one MFS to another MFS. “We’re working on it. We are confident that we'll be able to bring this interoperability within a few months.” Besides, Executive Director of Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) Dr Dushni Weerakoon, Executive Director of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) Dr Puspa Sharma, Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Dr Rashmi Banga, Chief Executive Officer of the HSBC Bangladesh Md Mahbub Ur Rahman, Associate Professor of Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) Dr Priyadarshi Dash, FES Resident Representative for Bangladesh Felix Kolbitz delivered the introductory remarks, while CPD’s former research associate Md Kamruzzaman made the keynote presentation. In the keynote presentation, Kamruzzaman said innovative technology is seeping into the mechanisms of economic sectors worldwide. Professional services are expected to be heavily disrupted by artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, machine learning and digital platforms, he said. READ: Bangladesh’s road to digitalisation: 59 hill unions to get broadband internet He said Bangladesh’s exports have been heavily concentrated in the textiles and garments sector. Strategic development and promotion of services trade are among the key approaches needed for Bangladesh to break into new markets. Eliminating barriers to trade in services is therefore vital to ensure market openness in the digital age, he added.