Bangladesh is set to extend ICT facilities to its rural populace as part of the government’s ‘Digital Bangladesh’ initiative. Before the year is out, the initiative hopes to provide such facilities to over 2000 unions (the lowest administrative unit in rural areas of Bangladesh).
"Against the backdrop of tremendous success in 102 unions, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities will be expanded to 2000 more unions by December this year," said Mohammad Nazrul Islam Khan, National Project Director of the Access to Information (A2I) Programme.
The government also plans to set up union information centres (UICs) in all 4484 unions by 2011, with the ultimate aim of providing ICT access to the entire population. The ICT expansion will allow easy access to information about agriculture, health, education, legal aid, human rights and employment.
Since the current government assumed power, 102 UICs have been set up under the joint initiative of the A2I Programme and the National Institute of Local Government (NILG), while the UNDP has provided financial and technical assistance to the programme. Khan claimed that all 102 UICs will receive a fibre optic connection by the end of the year.
Manik Mahmud, a consultant on the A2I programme, stated that the UICs would be run under a public-private partnership, and that an agreement to this end has been signed between the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) and the Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN).
The project was initially piloted in May 2007 by the Democratic Government Thematic Trust Fund. Community-based e-centres were set up in two unions: Madhainagar under Tarash upazila in the Sirajganj district, and Mushidhat under Setabganj upazila in the Dinjpur district. The e-centres were included in the Driver Project of the A2I Programme with the financial assistance of the UNDP.
Mohammad Waheduzzaman, chairman of Madhainagar UP, commented: "The people of my union are benefiting immensely through the e-centres, as they can get information easily about agriculture, health, education, law, human rights, employment and marketing.” Such information, as well as application forms for documents such as passports and driving licences, was previously only available through the upazila headquarters.
