Digital Bangladesh as an engine for economic growth

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

 

Technology also contributes to growth by increasing competition. It is estimated that in the US, online goods are on average 10% cheaper than those sold by traditional bricks and mortar stores. This is partly because of increased price transparency and the ability of consumers to use online price comparison tools to find the cheapest products. Secondly the Internet e-commerce platforms, most famously Amazon, offer massive economies of scale.

Ebay auction sites were also a disruptive technology in retailing space by making the sale of used products and new goods much easier, again putting downwards pressure on prices.

So Internet markets are argued to be more efficient due to the ease of information transmission, which leads to lower transaction costs. Different pricing and selling mechanisms, such as online auctions, also contribute to increased efficiency.

We have already seen a rapid growth of e-commerce in Bangladesh with the Digital Bangladesh initiative continuing to encourage the expansion of this sector. Recent initiatives by Bangladesh Bank to allow e-payment facilities online, using credit cards such as by enabling Paypal in Bangladesh, will help the growth of the sector even further. In a country like Bangladesh, where supply chains are not that efficient, ICT will reduce the scope for price distortions and manipulation by unscrupulous middlemen to ensure that consumers receive fair prices.

To the extent that we accept that the effective utilisation of technology can have a transformative impact on the economy, it is important to determine what steps policymakers should take in Bangladesh. Firstly, they should ensure world class digital infrastructure and networks at competitive prices. In this area, the Bangladesh government has made major progress in recent years with the dramatic fall in broadband prices, the rapid rollout of 3G services, and the prospects for fast introduction in the near future of 4G and LTE.

Secondly, the government can encourage the development of a strong local IT ecosystem. Thirdly, expanding the IT skills base is critical with more vocational colleges to increase the supply of programmers and IT management and marketing professionals. Effective use of ICT can also play a key role in female empowerment by bringing more women into the workplace and allowing them greater flexibility in working from home/working hours that enables greater balance with family commitments.

It is also important that the government ensures a stable and supportive regulatory framework both in terms of avoiding regulatory volatility and inconsistent or negative taxation policies for the IT sector.

The government has committed to establishing 12 new technology parks in Bangladesh, with the first being the 238 acre park in Kaliakoir near Dhaka. But there are some other encouraging initiatives from the private sector in the pipeline. Sajeeb Wazeb Joy, ICT Advisor to the Prime Minister, noted in his speech at the Digital World 2015 that: “One of the problems is financing. In America, new innovations don’t get support from the government. They get their funding from the private sector.”

In this context, the announcement in November that Fenox, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, was raising a $200m fund for Bangladesh IT, is especially encouraging. Kyle King from Fenox noted:

“Bangladesh has a large, young population, an outstanding Internet and mobile growth with an unexplored entrepreneurial system which all make Bangladesh a place for innovation, discovery, change, disruption, creation, and investment … For Fenox, Bangladesh qualifies as the right country to be a part of in terms of developing the world’s most influential startups.”

Sajeeb Wazed Joy also stated: “I want companies like Google and Facebook to emerge from Bangladesh.”

On the face that may sound like wishful thinking. But in fact technology is levelling the competitive playing field so fast that in our generation it is definitely conceivable, perhaps even likely, that a boy from a Bangladeshi village has the potential to create a company with a disruptive technology as powerful as Google or Facebook.

To paraphrase NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Technology is the primary driver of such “flattening” of the global economic landscape.

In conclusion, we believe that ICT is every bit as important as energy and infrastructure investment in raising the trend growth rate. Effective implementation of Digital Bangladesh may yet prove to be the single most important weapon in poverty alleviation allowing Bangladesh to achieve its potential as the fastest growing economy in Asia

Digital World 2015, the recently concluded four-day conference, was the fourth largest ICT event in the world, with 120 private companies and 100 governmental organisations from 25 countries. It also featured representatives from leading technology companies, most notably Google, which sent a broad range of executives, as well as Facebook and Microsoft, among others.
While the primary focus of the event was to highlight the advances of the “Digital Bangladesh” initiative of the current government as well as potential growth opportunities in the ICT sector, in this long form we want to discuss some of the broader potentials of technology as a catalyst for economic growth
- See more at: http://www.dhakatribune.com/long-form/2015/feb/25/digital-bangladesh-engine-economic-growth#sthash.1EyFe3OG.dpuf

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

Can tech powerhouses emerge from Bangladesh?

Digital Bangladesh as an engine for economic growth - See more at: http://www.dhakatribune.com/long-form/2015/feb/25/digital-bangladesh-engine-economic-growth#sthash.1EyFe3OG.dpuf

Digital Bangladesh as an engine for economic growth - See more at: http://www.dhakatribune.com/long-form/2015/feb/25/digital-bangladesh-engine-economic-growth#sthash.1EyFe3OG.dpuf