Flaws In ICT Policy

Export market is the focus of ICT policy.
Job creation and investment remains unfulfilled prophecy.
Local market offers alley to prosper.
Tax social media to fill NBR coffer.

Two news stories laid bare debacle of digitization policies of the government. First one is about the state-of-the-art ICT center in Jessore, a far away district from the capital city of Dhaka. It was envisioned during the time of its conception that it would bring investment, create jobs for IT professionals. For the moment that goal has not yet been realized.Tk305 crore worth of infrastructure fetched Tk60 crore investment and generated employment of 1400 persons. It was expected to create jobs for 5000 persons. COVID-19 severely hampered operations of the IT firms. Many were forced to wind down their businesses due to lack of foreign orders. Its auditorium is being rented for holding marriage ceremonies. In a nutshell, the IT facility has failed to live up to its utility till to date.

The other story is about government's disappointment to get tax revenues from social media platforms. A recent high court ruling made it clear that these platforms have to pay taxes to the government on their earnings in the local market. However, government lacks tools to enforce them to obey tax rules. Ad revenues from social media platforms are on the rise. But government cannot monitor the ad earnings of the platforms. Even it is incapable of calculating the right taxes based on the earnings.

One of the major drawbacks of government's policy is that its reliance and too much importance attached to external market. Sheer success of readymade garments and textile industry guides the government to adopt policies to earn more dollars. But the truth is such policies miserably failed to diversify the export bucket, RMG still accounts two-third of export earnings, and to churn out adequate IT professionals.

Government instead should explore the domestic market. Addressing the challenges of domestic market should be the goal of our ICT policy. Areas are plenty: education, agriculture, health, manufacturing, transport and governance could offer alleys for the development of our ICT sector.

In one of my earlier pieces, I elaborated how applications aimed at elementary school students could facilitate learning process. Government policy should be directed towards nudging educational institutes and parents to use extensively these educational contents. Number of smartphone users is on the rise. Clearly such applications have wide base of users. All the government needs to do is to formulate policies in that end. Education alone offers enough opportunities for the growth of our ICT sector and can put it into a firm footing.

Health sector can also play a role in popping up the ICT sector. Just a year ago I wrote a piece where I underscored developing a homegrown medical scribing sector. Every day hundreds of thousands of handwritten prescriptions are generated across the country. If we were able to document them digitally, our policy makers and health professionals would have better understanding of our health sector. Real time data could plug in the holes in government spending, lay bare lack of equipments and medicines in health facility, track outbreak of seasonal diseases, health situation of a particular region. More importantly it will contribute creating a health database.

Knowledge on spreadsheet and high-school-level biology is enough to be a medical scriber. Thousands of students could work as medicato earn pocket money.

Similarly, thousands of general diary are being filed in the police station across the country. Ministry of Interior could outsource the task of creating a digital version of the diary. Law enforcement authorities will get data in short span of time when that database comes into effect. This will create opportunities for many outside data entry operator or firms.

There are many public offices that could offer ICT opportunities in stage-reducing and time-shortening processes of certain tasks. Apart from that government should encourage public offices to use homegrown word-processing and spreadsheet application, encrypted messaging services,statistical software, surveillance solution, billing system etc. This kind of policy change will lead the local firms to embark upon creating ICT solutions for local market. At the same time, government will have far greater control and understanding of ICT related changes and challenges that is encountering now over taxing the social media platforms.

It appears that government has little means to gauge ad revenues in the social media platforms. To keep a tab on the revenue generated in the social media, government can let the platforms open offices in Bangladesh and make it obligatory to make the ad payments through the country office.

Another way, a bit harsh, to get revenue from social media platforms is to impose fee on their use. Government can make it compulsory for citizens to pay a certain fee for the use of social media. Monthly or annual subscription can be offered. With valid NIDs , the fees can be paid to a government assigned number/outlet/bank. Mobile SIM or broadband subscription registered with that NID will be allowed to use social media.

Ignoring the local market, designing policies to capture foreign market will not bring the desired change.Grooming of IT professionals will not be what it was anticipated at the time decision was taken. It was one of the reasons mentioned by an outgoing investor in that news story. Searching areas in other sectors for potential growth could be the right way to develop the ICT industry and update government's IT capability.