Bangladesh moves up on UN E-Government Development Index

Bangladesh has significantly moved forward on the E-Government Development Index of the United Nations due to the development in information-communication technology sector over the last few years.

Bangladesh has moved up nine steps on the E-Governance Development Index while it progressed 33 steps on the E-Participation Index, according to the report published by the UN that assessed the development over last two years.

Bangladesh secured the 115th place among 193 countries on the E-Government Development Index or EGDI scoring 0.4862 and 51st place in E-Participation or EPI with a score of 0.8034.

It was on the 124th place in EGDI scoring 0.3800 and on 84th place with a score of 0.5254 according to the survey in 2016.

The United Nations published its E-Government Survey 2018 on Jul 19. Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar presented the survey findings and Bangladesh’s achievement in it, at a press meet.

“Bangladesh is gradually moving towards its desired goal in e-government development ranking securing its place in the international arena,” he said.

# The UN has used a scale of 0 to 1 on the following indexes-online service delivery, telecommunication infrastructure and human capital- to consider overall situation in a country and prepare the E-Government Development Index.

# Bangladesh scored 0.7847 in online service delivery, 0.1976 in telecommunication infrastructure and 0.4763 in human capital index making the total score 0.4862.

# Denmark has topped the E-Government Index with a score of 0.915 while Somalia has been in last place with a score of 0.0566.

# Sri Lanka is on 94th place, India on 96th , Maldives on 97th , Nepal on 117th , Bhutan 126th , Pakistan 148th , Myanmar 157th and Afghanistan on 177th place in the index among South Asian countries.

# Denmark, Finland and South Korea is leading the E-Participation Index with a score of 1 while North Korea is on the last position scoring 0.

# India is placed at 15th position, Bangladesh at 51st, Nepal at 55th, Sri Lanka at 85th, Bhutan at 111th, Pakistan at 115th, Maldives at129th Afghanistan at 145th and Myanmar at 181st position among the South Asian countries.

However, Bangladesh should have progressed to a higher spot in the index considering its development over in the nine years since the government began its development work in the sector with the motto ‘Digital Bangladesh,’ believes minister Mustafa   Jabbar.

“I must acknowledge our mistakes. We couldn’t depict the proper picture of the development we have achieved, which is quite important here,” he said.

Bangladesh had moved 24 steps up from 148 to 124 in the 2016 index, said policy advisor of a2i Anir Chowdhury. This year it has moved nine steps up, securing 115th place, he said.

“Bangladesh has progressed in the online service delivery index mainly because of creating different online services using ICT as a tool and presenting them through mobile or web appw.”

The UN has been conducting the survey since 2001 to spread digital government throughout the world and to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030.

The survey is conducted every 2 years by Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat with the assistance of International Telecommunication Union and Institute for Statistics of UNESCO.

“There was no e-service in Bangladesh before 2008. At present we are able to provide 40 percent services online. At present we have 5,272 digital information centres at union level where around 60,000 people can have access to services. Almost 250 services are available online,” said state minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak.

The government is gradually working towards providing 90 percent of government services online by 2021, Palak said.

Information and communication division secretary Zuena Aziz and other senior officials of the ministry were present on the occasion.