CIPR delivers recommendations to make best budget for IT sector
IT Reporter
Speakers at a roundtable discussion titled Reflections of the National ICT Policy on National Budgets found every year allocated budget for ICT sector is very less according to the recommended allocations of the National ICT Policy.
IT focused think-tank Center for ICT Policy Research, CIPR, arranged the roundtable discussion on the last day of BCS Digital Expo2011 where most of leaders of IT community participated. Software developers and hardware vendors requested the government for zero duty on digital devices till 2021.
CIPR, country's first ever IT based think-tank is built with IT pioneers who are dedicated to serve the sector with policy supports. Its board members, with diverse background, were selected from faculty of computer science, IT journalism, industry, development field and former government official.
Chairman of CIPR, SASM Taifur, moderated the roundtable discussion where software industrialists informed the current income tax exemption from software and ITES will be expired within a few months. So software houses asked the government to extend it till 2019 for the sake of the budding companies.
CIPR is preparing itself to deliver recommendation and suggestions to the government and private IT bodies. Its board members as civil society initiators are becoming active to pressure the leaders to escalate IT move more honest and rigorously.
According to the chairman of CIPR most of the budget allocation for IT sector is being spent for buying computers. 'Block allocation' of budgets is nothing as per the demand of the sector. Allocation regarding ICTs for every ministry should be specifically mentioned in the next budget.
Faizullah Khan, Former President of BCS, told government should not be only concerned on collecting duty on hi-tech goods; it should invest much and make a place to invite foreign direct investments.
Asif Mahmood, Chairman of Tech Valley, went on: many service features around National ID is still pending. On the basis of it we can deliver many services to the people.
MD Ali Ashfak, MD of RM System, pointed out that PC is on the verge of extinction for the rise of devices of many sorts. Increasing number of PCs soon will be unnecessary because nano-technology based gadgets will be available to replace them.
He further told, when you will bring a graded gadget custom officers will tell you this is an entertainment product, so you have to pay much tax because government imposed high tax on luxury products. Unfortunately we don't want to think such products will become very common and necessary items within a few years.
Professor Dr. Mohammad Shorif Uddin, Research Director of CIPR, stressed in his power point presentation that the government should establish a 'National ICT Centre' under Prime Minister's Office. Such center is available in Japan, India, Sri Lankaand many other nations.
The ICT centre will centrally control the national database, procurement and supply of ICT logistics to all government offices, and will do coordination among all ministries, different public and private organisations including financial institutions. It is essential to improve the controlling, coordination, transparency, misuse of logistics, reduction of bureaucracy and dynamism in administration and management.
Gartner identified Bangladesh is in the list of top 30 countries for offshore services, which have placed significant emphasis on IT and business process services providing a vehicle for their economic growth. The report was prepared according to 10 criteria: language, government support, labour pool, infrastructure, educational system, cost, political and economic environment, cultural compatibility, global and legal maturity, and data and intellectual property security and privacy. The rating scale was "poor", "fair", "good", "very good" and "excellent". However, there are many of obstacles which we have to address properly as well as immediately to upgrade our ICT status for the betterment of the people. Narration of Dr. Mohammad Shorif Uddin went on.
Habibullah N Karim, Former President of BASIS, told only buying computers for students is not a solution. The Notational ICT policy mentioned to allocate 2 per cent of total budget for the sector.
Again he mentioned we should create more skilled people who can build the sector. We should realize that investing 1000 crore Taka means bringing 10000 Taka to the country.
Abdullah H Kafi, Former President of Bangladesh Computer Samity, praised the role of media for promoting the sector and he requested the editors to assign more efficient journalists for writing elaborated stories about the sector.
Fahim Mashroor, Senior Vice-President of BASIS, placed a demand of BASIS that till 2014 zero VAT should be on local software purchase.
Ahmed Hasan Jewel, former Vice-president of BCS and BASIS, called the industrialists to find out alternative way to address problems. We have generators to get backup support for electricity black out. So this is the matter on how we will get and use generators.
Shameem Ahsan, CEO of E-generation and one of the members of the ICT Task Force, commented that no significant progress for last two years in IT industry has been noticed; therefore, we need much focus on the industry. In a lucid way we should tell the government that investing in the sector is beneficial for the government, here businessmen are not only getting benefits.
Lutfor Rahman, Chairman of Computer Science, Stamford University, told, "Businessmen should not be frustrated, we overcame many hurdles and our many scientists performed well. All the universities have computer faculties which can produce many skilled persons that can support the industry."
Dr. Mofiz Uddin Ahmed, Professor of BRAC University, "Keep you mind on technological research that will bring one day result. Once I started working almost without facilities, but years later my continuous endeavour is bringing result. So we should have patience.
Caption- IT leaders talking on ICT budget at a roundtable discussion titledReflections of the National ICT Policy on National Budgets organised by CIPR.
The Independent
18/03/2011
http://www.theindependentdigital.com/index.php?opt=view&page=29&date=2011-03-18
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