The World Bank has withdrawn $175 million.
The ‘Enhancing Digital Government and Economy (EDGE)’ project, which was funded by the World Bank to enhance the country’s technological capabilities and save money, is in a state of collapse.
Although most of the project’s term has passed, its financial progress has been only 14 percent, and its actual progress has been 33 percent. Most of this is due to various events and trainings in the country and abroad. However, the main component of the project, the work related to technological innovation, has not yet seen the light of day. The World Bank is unhappy with such a long delay in the progress of the project. For this reason, the organization has withdrawn $175 million from the project.
In this regard, EDGE project project director Md. Sakhawat Hossain said that its progress has not been very much. The project budget was large. Now 175 million US dollars has been surrendered here. So since there is no money, all the work will not be done, it has decreased. The current government has come and made some reviews, some cuts have been made. The World Bank has been in talks with them to provide support in the budget. So, money has been deducted from here. Now the total budget is only $120 million.
According to project sources, the objective of this project named ‘Enhancing Digital Government and Economy (EDGE)’ of the IT Department was to increase the government’s capacity to deal with future crises. The cost of the project was estimated at Tk 2,507 crore. It was said that 100,000 graduates working in the IT sector would be given employment-friendly training to take the export income to $5 billion by 2025, a national job portal for government job seekers, government cloud services, email and unified communication services. Apart from this, it was supposed to set up a smart leadership academy, give the government a strategy paper to face the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution and take initiatives to implement it, set up economic hubs in trade organizations, set up Center for 4IR and research-innovation centers in universities.
However, the project progress report says that the implementation process of the project is stuck in training and seminars. In total, 16,500 students have been trained so far. MoUs have been signed with various universities and institutions for training and events. They have held some workshops and seminars, including the inauguration of the Bangladesh IT Connect Portal with the United States, South Korea, and Japan, the design of a research and innovation center, and the celebration of friendship with Bangladesh and Japan-World Bank.
According to the project authority, 230 members of parliament were trained in digital leadership and cyber security under the project. The draft of the Personal Data Protection Act and ICT policies was submitted to the ICT department. In addition, the government’s email service was strengthened, some tenders including Platform as a Service Solution were completed, and some work was delayed halfway and some consultants were appointed.
Meanwhile, the World Bank expressed dissatisfaction with the progress of the project. The organization has asked to complete the project activities quickly. The project budget has also been reduced. The budget of the project, including the IDA-World Bank and the government’s share, was $295 million. The World Bank has now returned $175 million from there.
Meanwhile, the investigation committee formed to investigate irregularities and corruption in the Information Technology Department has recommended in its report that various events in the country and abroad taken up in this EDGE project be reduced, and several unnecessary components such as the construction of technology labs in universities and various academies under various names should be eliminated.
On the other hand, although the work on the Unified Communications Component and the National Job Portal has been completed, the project authorities have not been able to open it for service.
However, project stakeholders say that the National Job Portal can be a groundbreaking platform for the young generation, which will make the government job application process easy, transparent and accountable. This initiative will eliminate discrimination in the field of employment, which will play a role in implementing the spirit of the July Uprising.
IT sector expert, Executive Director and CEO of Foreign Chamber of Commerce and Industry TIM Nurul Kabir has questioned why the services of projects that can play a role in reducing unemployment are not being launched quickly. He said, in a country like Bangladesh where job resources are low, unemployment is high, and where the new generation has awakened new hope; a job portal has been set up with foreign assistance. If it can be activated, it will provide employment opportunities to a large number of people. Since it is ready, why is it not being launched?
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