Home ›› 13 Sep 2021 ›› Opinion
Bangladesh and China are old business and development allies. Bangladesh is a proud member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Comprising with around 60 countries, BRI project includes 55 percent of the world Gross National Product, involves 70 per cent of world population and covers 75 per cent of discovered reserves of energy of world. China’s BRI project focuses on the policy coordination, regional connectivity, cross-border trading, financial investment and integration, and people-to-people bonding. In this regard, the Chinese president Xi Jinping pledged for $40 billion of investment and aid for Bangladesh in 2016.
Along with BRI, China is also working on ‘Internet Plus’ programme, otherwise known as a strategy of uberisation for the economy, for digital and industrial transformation, upgrading and development. Internet Plus programme mainly focuses on cloud computing, big data, mobile Internet and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. To implement the ‘Internet Plus’ programme, China is making cross-border optical cable networks, opting for transcontinental submarine optical cable projects, and joint
satellite launching programmes to increase information exchange
and international collaboration.
Under Internet Plus programme, using big data in agriculture, China is dramatically developing its agricultural sector through switching from traditional agriculture mode to modern agriculture mode. For example, China has adapted five e-commerce models for e-agribusiness known as: 1) Internet plus Agriculture model, 2) Hypostatic Store plus Online Shop model, 3) Enterprise and Online Shop model, 4) Brand and Online shop model and 5) Develop with Collaboration model. The models involve the intersections of agricultural informatics, agricultural development, agricultural innovation and agricultural entrepreneurship for capacity building, developing, distributing and evaluation of agricultural products and trades. In 2018, 96 per cent
villages in China extended the coverage of optical fiber. This investment facilitated to reach 1.37 trillion-yuan retail sales of e-commerce in rural areas of China. The national agricultural product network retail sales reached 49.2 billion US dollar (349.07 billion RMB), which is 43.3 per cent growth from previous year by connecting rural farmers to online.
A continuous upsurge of the internet use, digitalization and connectivity in Bangladesh is observed since the initiation of Digital Bangladesh agenda by the incumbent government in Bangladesh. Within the purview of Digital Bangladesh agenda, the development and sustainability through the utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) is the primary objective. In this process, the government has undertaken and completed many ICT projects in last twelve years.
Today Bangladesh holds about 16.8 per cent of the total outsourcing market of the world, a result of new job creation because of advancement in ICT sectors. Of late, the government has taken initiatives to establish 12 IT parks at different districts to facilitate improvement in education, health, job placement, poverty reduction and lacking in skilled human resources. Along with building the massive IT infrastructure across the country, the government has created an open and favorable environment for the maximum growth of e-Governance system, e-Commerce industry, mobile banking, community e-centers and telemedicine centers.
To pursue this objective, Digital Bangladesh agenda has four visions, which are developing skilled human resource to face the challenges of 21st century, connecting the citizens, e-Governance and building efficient and competitive private sector. To support these visions, the government has made the ICT education compulsory up to intermediate level and is making progress in building an ‘ICT Infra-Network’ for itself to provide e-services for public with the philosophy of ensuring transparency, accountability and provision of government services by the means of maximum use of technology. Such integration of ICT with traditional service, governance system and industries is already contributing to the expedition of economic growth. However, currently the country has lack of infrastructure and functional literacy to maximize the benefits of Digital Bangladesh agenda. In this regard, Bangladesh government is consistently working for required infrastructure development with the help of other countries like China.
China is continuously making commitment and signing memorandum of understanding with other countries within the scope of both BRI and Internet Plus programmes that would lead to win-win cooperation among partnering countries. By involving with China’s Internet Plus programmes, Bangladesh can greatly fulfil and take its Digital Bangladesh agenda to the next level. Such technological partnership would provide Bangladesh a solid foundation for building digital economy and industry 4.0 in future. The concept of industry 4.0 is conceptualized as the automation and data exchange in service and manufacturing sectors by the means of creating a cyber-physical systems based on cloud computing and IoT technologies. In Bangladesh, where the start-up firms and small enterprises need patronizing and funding for growth will also need support for building cyber-physical systems in near future. In this regard, it will be prudent for Bangladesh to align its digitalization strategies with the China’s BRI and Internet Plus programmes, as China is also keen to collaborate with Bangladesh. Such collaboration between two countries would accelerate the developments in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, modernization, telecommunication, transportation, agriculture, energy, public service, community service, social development, e-governance and e-commerce, and so on.
The writer is Associate Professor, Department of Management Information Systems
University of Dhaka
