Digital Bangladesh

Comments on last year’s budget	Things we want to see in this year’s budget
Issue of e-Governance was left vague and seemed direction-less in last year’s budget. There was a statement: “we want to transform to e-governance by 2014” – which created more questions than answers.	We would like to see specific mention and direction for e-Governance with no vague statements. Since Digital Bangladesh is a prime agenda of the government, we would ideally like to see a list of the major online citizen services and major government internal automation projects planned for this fiscal year.
The issue of ministry-wise allocation for e-Governance was not touched upon.	The ICT Policy states that 5% of ADP for each Ministry will be allocated for e-Governance but there is no mechanism to utilize this policy directive and the budget provided no guidance either. We hope that this issue will be clarified this year.
PPP in ICT was not touched upon at all. PPP was only discussed in the context of infrastructure projects mainly.	PPP for ICT is an important issue for the development of e-Governance and the software industry, but last year’s budget did not provide any guidance regarding this. We hope it will be corrected this time and there will be specific mention of mechanisms which will allow PPP in government’s ICT related projects.
The Equity and Entrepreneurship Fund (EEF) for the software sector was increased from Tk. 100 crore to Tk. 200 crore.	Despite the increase in budget, much of it has remained unspent primarily because the disbursement process itself is problematic. They do not know how to judge ICT projects – since different criteria need to be used than usual projects. We hope that this year’s budget will reflect some appreciation of this problem.
With regards to human resource development, there was mention of “target a benchmark of 4000 computer engineers and scientists graduating each year from the last year of our tenure.” There was no budget associated to this commitment.	We hope that this year the govt. will clearly allocate funds for computer science departments of public universities also invest in research and lab facilities.

Education

Comments on last year’s budget	Things we want to see in this year’s budget
In last year’s budget, there was no specific mention of the importance of connectivity for higher level education.	We hope to see that this year’s budget will allocate funds to provide wireless Internet connectivity to all public university campuses.
The issue of teacher’s training and associated budget got no separate and specific mention in the Education section of last year’s budget.	We hope to see that this year’s budget will have a separate section on teacher’s training and specific budget allocation.
One of the most fundamental needs of making the nation ready for Digital Bangladesh is to make school teachers ready. The issue of training teachers is use of IT and computers also got no separate mention or budgetary allocation.	We hope that the issue of training teachers in the use of IT and computers will get special budgetary allocation so that they can impart that vision to students. The IT facilities of teachers’ training institutes need to be significantly improved. IT-based education does not have to be limited to computers only – but can also incorporate mobile technologies.
There was no specific mention of disabled children in schools or schools for the disabled.	We hope that this budget will have specific section on the education rights of the disabled and associated budgetary commitments.

Health

Comments on last year’s budget	Things we want to see in this year’s budget
Quality assurance in production of drugs is given minimal importance by only saying that Department of Drug Administration will be modernized.	We hope to see that this year’s budget will recognize that drug quality control mishaps is a recurring issue and can lead to widespread adverse impact. Research on drugs and quality control should be given a huge priority with special allocation.
There have been repeated stories about adulteration of food items but the last year’s budget did not mention this issue at all.	We hope to see that the government will make a special allocation to fight adulteration of food and make this a top priority for the law enforcement agencies.
The quality of health in a country is very much dependent on the quality of its workforce. However, last year’s budget made no mention of the need for continuing education of health workforce to keep up with new medical knowledge and methodologies.	We hope to see that the government will put special emphasis on the quality and capacity enhancement of health workforce (including doctors, nurses, laboratory, para-clinical, non clinical health staff and community health workers) and make a special allocation for it.
Safe drinking water is a fundamental right of every citizen. This issue was mentioned last year’s budget – however, there was no specific allocation made for ensuring safe drinking water.	We hope that in this year’s budget, this will get a high priority and that clear budget allocation will be made for raising awareness, providing relevant facilities and also developing capacity to produce safe drinking water within the local context.
Population control and family planning did get emphasis as a major goal of the government – however, specific broad-level activities under this was not clearly mentioned. Particularly missing was the communication and awareness raising component, which generally gets ignored as a separate major category of activity and thereby gets little funding.	We hope that in this year’s budget, the issue of specific broad level activities under family planning will get due emphasis. We also hope that the much-ignored issue of communications and awareness-raising component will get due emphasis and specific budgetary allocation.

Price Stability of Agricultural Commodities

Comments on last year’s budget	Things we want to see in this year’s budget
Last year’s budget put little emphasis on the issue of enhancing storage facilities and virtually NO mention of cold storage, which is a fundamental perquisite for making sure that bumper agricultural production can be stored and farmers are able to reap the benefits.	We want to see government’s special allocation for building of cold storage throughout the country and ensuring fair access of these storages to farmers.
Keeping track of agricultural commodities from all corners can be greatly facilitated by the use of ICTs. However, there was no mention of this at all.	We want to see that the government will make an allocation to develop a system for keeping track of prices of agricultural commodities. Mobile phones may be used to collect data on a daily basis and Internet, radio, TV may be used to disseminate information that can also bring out the regional disparities – which can serve as a sign for market failures.

Electricity Crisis

Comments on last year’s budget	Things we want to see in this year’s budget
There was mention that 85% of our electricity generation is from gas. However, there was no mention about the pricing policy of gas.	We want to see government’s focus on pricing policy of gas. There is currently huge wastage of gas that can be avoided if there is a method of differential pricing so that private car owners, corporations, shopping malls etc. pay more for gas to subsidize and reduce unnecessary or luxurious use of gas.
There was no mention of use of solar energy for irrigation purposes, and no specific budgetary allocation for it.	We hope to see that the government will take measures to subsidize use of solar energy for irrigation purposes.

Entrepreneurship Development

Comments on last year’s budget	Things we want to see in this year’s budget
Entrepreneurship and Equity Fund (EEF) was the only vehicle mentioned to encourage entrepreneurship, which has faulty disbursement mechanism to begin with.	We hope to see reflection of much greater emphasis put on entrepreneurship development, training and access to finance. Special incentives may be proposed for banks which provides loans for young entrepreneurs.
Women’s entrepreneurship was encouraged through promise of special rules and regulations for women entrepreneurs. However, the scope remained vague and un-specific.	We hope that this budget will reflect specific initiatives and incentive mechanisms for encouraging women entrepreneurs.

Increasing Investment

Comments on last year’s budget	Things we want to see in this year’s budget
The corporate tax in Bangladesh is 35% to 45% depending on the type of corporation - in India corporate tax rate is around 34%, in Pakistan 35%, both lower than our rate. Companies enjoying tax holidays are required to invest only 25% to 30% of their income in other activities.	We hope that the government will review the rate of corporate tax, which is heavily discouraging towards investment and giving tax. There should be provisions for tax breaks if profits are re-invested into the productive sectors and it can also be dependent on the number of jobs renewed investment generates.