Apart from several positive steps taken by the ICT Ministry, most of the automation projects are limited to purchasing computer hardware, opening websites and training centres, ICT professionals alleged.
e-government is yet to be a reality while e-commerce and e-services have been developed by the private sector at their own initiative forced by accelerating global competition.
ICT Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan told the FE, "At the initial stage of automation there was a mindset among the officials who said we do not have enough qualified engineers and human resources in this sector."
But overcoming the barriers the government has implemented automated services in different ministries, departments and have established inter-district and upazilla network connections, he said.
"Public and private universities of the country are producing more than 5000 IT graduates every year", he said and added this number is not enough for Bangladesh as another Asian country Vietnam is producing 30,000 IT graduates every year.
The ICT secretary said the government under its capacity building programme has so far trained 45,000 people at its 4516 information technology service centres across the country.
He said this project has created a pool of freelance software developers who last year earned $25 million from outsourcing and this year it could exceed $36 million.
To provide them higher technical knowledge and professional certificates the government is going to establish High Tech Parks in all the divisional headquarters.
The government along with interconnectivity among its District Commissioner (DC) offices has taken up another 'Info Sarkar' automation project under which it plans to bring all its offices under a single network and already 25000 government websites have been set up.
Mr. Khan said due to unavailability of high speed broadband it is not possible at the moment to connect all the upazillas under a network but currently many upazillas are connected with the DC offices and different services are being provided using this network.
President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) Sabur Khan said private sector automation is currently more than 50 percent. Banks, financial institutions, corporate houses, some industries and other service providing sectors in particular have adopted automation.
But at the government level it is only less than one per cent. Even some websites are not being updated, he said.
Purchasing hardware and opening websites are not automation. People are still facing hassles at different ministries as well as at departments providing utility services, Sabur Khan who is also the former Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) president said.
There is no policy in the country yet for patronising local software for both public and private sectors, he said.
The tendency of using foreign software that had started a decade back should be changed as the local companies are providing international standard services and developing world class software.
The DCCI president said two banks - Dutch Bangla Bank Limited and Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited - have automated their transaction system by appointing local companies and they are in better position now by using local software.
Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) president Syed Ershad Ahmed told the FE that the government is not yet an e-government as some service providing departments are yet to automate their system.
The FICCI president said foreign companies operating in Bangladesh and local big corporate houses have automated their business forced by their own necessity.
He said the scenario in the public sector is still not satisfactory and only a few departments have automated their services and administrative systems. Different trade related processes are still time consuming.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) senior vice president Shameem Ahsan said in several foreign funded automation projects there are clauses that local companies cannot participate in the bidding.
He said the foreign consultants in World Bank and Asian Development Bank funded projects advise the officials to include CMMi-5 level certification companies with a huge amount of turnover.
He said as a result local firms cannot participate in the government's automation projects and the foreign firms get the jobs.
The BASIS vice president said for such projects the local CMMI-3 level certified companies are enough and currently there is a good number of such certified companies in the country.
To let the local firms grow the government should create opportunities for them both in the government and foreign funded projects, he said.
Mr. Ahsan said the foreign firms after completing projects do not offer follow up services but if local companies are engaged it could save money and they would be here to provide the services after the commissioning of a IT project.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Shamsul Huda
Quelle/Source: The Financial Express Bangladesh, 17.08.2013
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