The government has launched a total of 500 mobile apps in an attempt to facilitate public services to the people easily and cheaply using internet.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina's information and communication technology (ICT) affairs adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy inaugurated the mobile applications in a programme on Sunday.
The function was organised by the government’s ICT Division at Bangladesh Computer Council auditorium at Agargaon in Dhaka.
Public offices in Dhaka connected with district headquarters by fibre optic links
The government has moved a step closer to its Digital Bangladesh vision by connecting public offices in Dhaka with district and upazila headquarters through a high-speed fibre optic network.
The information and communication technology ministry has also built a network of internet protocol telephony for public offices to ensure better communication.
Internet.org, a Facebook invention that allows free internet browsing through mobile gadgets, has been introduced in Bangladesh.
ICT Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak, has launched the service at an event with Robi Axiata Limited on Sunday.
Through the service, Robi subscribers will now have access to more than two dozen free basic services ranging from health, news, jobs, and e-government services, according to the Facebook page of Internet.org
The government has developed a model to simplify the existing process to deliver public services to the citizens aimed at saving their time, money and labour.
Access to Information (a2i) Programme has developed the model titled Service Process Simplification (SPS)' following the internationally recognized Business Process Reengineering (BPR) model to change the conventional system to deliver public services to citizens.
Making the disclosure at the concluding day session of a five-day training programme on 'Managing Technology for eGovernment' in the city on Thursday, a2i Project Director Kabir Bin Anwar said, "Initially, we're going to simplify the process to grant pension for the primary school teachers who have to frequently visit the department concerned and spend money to get pension."
Like the seed-fertiliser-water technology of the 1980s that revolutionised rice productivity and agriculture in Bangladesh, the ICT revolution touched off by the Digital Bangladesh initiative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2009 holds the promise of lifting factor productivity and citizen welfare through the adoption of mobile technology. Bangladesh has already made good progress during the Sixth Plan. The potential benefits for the poor are particularly noteworthy. By transferring knowledge, by facilitating financial transactions, by eliminating needless intermediation in transactions, and by enhancing and speeding up access to a range of public and privately provided services, the ICT revolution is contributing to lower production and selling costs for the poor. This in turn is increasing their productivity and income, thereby contributing to poverty reduction and improvement in mass welfare.
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