igital Innovation Fair 2010 concluded with a lot of fan fare in Dhaka's Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novotheatre on Saturday, March 06, 2010. Final day saw the biggest crowd with thousands of people streaming to different stalls to see the latest e-services provided by various government ministries.
Almost all the government ministries took part in the fair highlighting the various services that are currently being offered. The other highlight of the 3-day long innovation celebration was 7 seminars based on contemporary issues related to ICT service delivery.
Commenting on the seminar, Executive director of D.Net, Dr. Ananya Raihan said, “Such level of excitement among government officials was unthinkable only a year ago. We used to dream about such high level government participation in IT service growth.”
The seminars also saw a standing room only crowd. On average about three thousand participants took part on online. The final day's seminars were on 'PPP and E-Service Delivery" and "Building a positive image of Bangladesh". The key note paper was presented by Dr. Ananya Raihan and Dr. Ferhat Anwar and were chaired by Board of Investment (BOI) Executive Chairman Dr. Samad and energy adviser Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury respectively.
The day's concluding event was the closing ceremony where the best three stalls on public and private sector were chosen based on public voting. The best public sector stall was that of “Agricultural Information Services and the best private sector stall was E-Krishi of Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN).”
Mr. M A Muhit, the Finance Minister, attended the concluding session as Chief Guest. He said: 'It was tremendously heartening to see such mass participation from the public and the government officials surrounding this fair. He hoped that this fair be made an annual event. Among others, Mr. Stefan Priesner, Country Director of UNDP Bangladesh, attended as special guest.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the fair on March 4 with a hope that the citizens of the country would be able to meet every basic need through digital technology. Access to Information (a2i) Programme and Science and ICT Ministry jointly organized the Digital Innovation Fair 2010.
Background of the Digital Innovation Fair, 2010
The ‘ DIGITAL PUBLIC INNOVATION FAIR-2010’ is a step towards providing extensive citizen services to citizen. Through this fair citizens will be aware of the extensive e-services at their doorsteps. Also, citizens will be benefited in terms of reduced transaction time.
Some examples from Bangladesh demonstrate the vast potential:
Publishing SSC/HSC results through SMS, electricity bill payment through mobile phone, one-stop passport delivery, downloadable government forms have reduced cost and time for the government and citizens
Automation of primary teacher recruitment process has increased transparency; automation has enabled the Ministry of Religious Affairs to handle over 50,000 hajjis with ease where it had great difficulty in handling 5,000 hajjis earlier.
The Voter/Citizen’s ID card is generating a comprehensive database of citizens that can be used for birth and death registration, marriage registration, school enrolment, vaccination, social safety net programmes, and many others
The objectives of the event are:
To encourage and promote the current best practices in public service delivery
To share and replicate these best practices across government organizations
To set a tone of healthy competition amongst the GoB ministries and agencies
Government participants will benefit from learning about best practices in this respective field of service delivery and administration.
Industry participants will benefit from showcasing their most innovation solutions.
Citizens will benefit from knowing about the different services that are available to them hassle free using technology.
Most of the government ministries are taking part along with wide array of participation from the private sector.
There will also be 7 seminars on key issues such as Taking Services to Citizens’ Doorsteps through Public Service Delivery Centers , PPP Framework to Sustain e-Service Delivery, Implementing ICT Policy 2009 to Achieve Digital Bangladesh, Integration of government agencies through interoperability, m -Governance: Embracing the new mobile Paradigm for Service Delivery, Sustaining e-Service Delivery with Appropriate ICT HR in the Government, and Developing a Positive Image of Bangladesh.
The seminars will be widely participated by experts from both public and private centre.
WHEN: MARCH 4-6. 10 AM -- 8 PM WHERE: Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novo Theatre, Dhaka WHO: Almost all the government ministries, experts and wide array of the private sector. WHAT: Exhibition Stalls, Demonstrations, Seminars on new innovations. PRICE: FREE. OPEN TO ALL
