EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Bangladesh has made significant strides forward in the field of e-Government in the past decade, starting with
somewhat scattered projects on infrastructure development and some applications for automation of internal
processes, but gradually moving towards e-services delivery and inter-connected governance. From late 1990s
till about 2006, the government undertook a number of e-Government projects, many of which were initiated
from the Ministry of Planning. After 2006, a more consolidated approach to e-Government was undertaken
with increased emphasis on citizen service delivery and transparency. With the advent of Digital Bangladesh as
a prime focus of the government that took power in 2009, e-Government got a renewed vigor from the Prime
Minister's Office (PMO). Since then, the government, with stewardship from the PMO, has been increasingly
moving away from isolated approach towards more integrated, connected and transactional e-services.
Despite the progress in e-Government, the country does face some significant barriers to its further
enhancement with respect to the government's capacity. While the government's ICT infrastructure has
improved notably, they are still limited mostly to offices in urban locations. Access to computers is also
generally restricted to higher level officials, who often do not use them that often. The government's ICT staff
is also not very well prepared for large-scale transition to e-Government due to several factors, such as low
salary and unattractive career path. The administrative structure needed for a coordinated approach to e-
Government is also non-existent, with different entities responsible for different components. Also, the
requisite policy and legal framework to enable growth of e-Government still has some major gaps, with
respect to guidelines for data standardization, shared ICT resources, data security and privacy.
However, not all e-Government initiatives will be relevant for PPP. There are some criteria that can be used
for screening out which e-Government projects are particularly suited for PPP, such as scope for revenue
generation, degree of hassle faced by citizens to avail the service, percentage of the population the service is
relevant for etc. Some of the areas which lend themselves particularly well for PPP are: (i) Utility services
(utility bills, line connection and complain management); (ii) Transport (bus-train tickets, vehicle registration,
licensing, renewals, collection of fees and taxes, etc.); (iii) Security and Civil services (general diary, case
filing and status checking, immigration support, car tickets, etc.); (iv) Educational services (online
registrations, applications and admissions, certificate requests, information for higher education, e-learning,
etc.); (v) Land records digitization. The government and the donor community may take steps towards
realizing the potential of PPP in these areas.
E -Governance
