Hi-Tech Park, still a dream seven years after
Hi-Tech Park, still a dream seven years after
Maswood Alam Khan
About 250 guests representing not less than 150 IT companies of Bangladesh on Sunday, 25 July, 2010 enjoyed a kind of a picnic in a quiet and serene environment at a remote village at Kaliakoir in the district of Gazipur as they were invited by Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) to attend a conference in the newly-built administrative building in the under-construction Hi-Tech Park, 50 kilometers north of Dhaka, to discuss "The Role of Hi-Tech Park, Software Technology Park and ICT Incubator for the development of IT industry in Bangladesh".
Presided over by BASIS President Mahbub Zaman the conference was attended by the State Minister of Science and ICT Ministry Architect Yeafesh Osman as the chief guest and the local Member of Parliament from Gazipur-1 constituency and also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for the Ministry of Land Affairs Mr. A. K. M. Mozammel Haque as the special guest.
The picnic spirit of the conference was palpable as the representatives of the IT companies immediately after having their lunches rushed to an outer edge of the 232-acre sprawling compound of the High-Tech Park to plant more than 100 coconut saplings in a long row on the bank of a fallow marsh to avail of a unique opportunity for each of the BASIS member companies to leave a tree planted with a nametag as a silent sentry of their respective company's presence in the park.
While attending the conference as an adviser of BPO Solutions Limited, a business process outsourcing company and a BASIS member, I was flabbergasted by the sheer size of the park's landscape lying vacant with weeds growing aplenty and felt like painting in my emotional terrain a wishful picture reminiscent of a park in Malaysia I saw back in 1996, the Kulim Hi-Tech Park (KHTP) in the making, the first high technology industrial park in Malaysia comprising a total land area of approximately 4,000 acres with a view to propelling the country towards realizing their goals of the Vision 2020, a grand dream for Malaysia to be a fully industrialized nation by the year 2020.
The Kulim Hi-Tech Park was envisioned to be the 'Science City of The Future' of Malaysia, an integrated science park targeting technology-related industries primarily in the fields of advanced electronics, mechanical electronics, telecommunications, semiconductors, optoelectronics, biotechnology, advanced materials, research and development and emerging technologies.
There was a lively discussion at the Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park in the afternoon where speakers stressed upon the need of adopting long-term strategy and allowing the global players with local roots to develop the burgeoning IT industry in Bangladesh. They urged upon the government to build in the under-construction Hi-Tech Park internal power generation, high-speed broadband connectivity and also a shuttle train service between Kaliakoir and Dhaka as immediately as possible as the preliminary step to attract joint-ventures to set up their companies in the proposed park premises.
Representatives of BASIS recommended for setting up six STPs (Software Technology Park) at Dhaka and one at Chittagong by the year 2014. As a short-term goal they have sought the government's help in setting up the STPs in Janata Tower at Karwan Bazaar, BSCIC Electronic City at Mirpur and BCSIR premises at Elephant Road in Dhaka city. As a long-term goal they have appealed to the government for allotting 36 acres of land at Mohakhali exclusively for software technology parks.
On Sunday evening, the chief guest Architect Yeafesh Osman, Science and ICT State Minister and the special guest Mr. A. K. M. Mozammel Haque, the Member of Parliament, both in their respective speeches in the conference of the IT Industry entrepreneurs agitated the seemingly gullible minds of the audience to start knitting a cocoon of dreams centering on the Hi-Tech Park in Kaliakoir.
Mr. Mozammel while visualizing the future of the Hi-Tech Park in his own constituency became a little emotional as he did foresee a day when Kaliakoir would be the Hi-Tech capital of Bangladesh.
While mentioning the government's plans to set up a fast commuter train service shuttling between Jaidebpur and Dhaka, touching a rail station inside the Hi-Tech Park, an IT University inside the park and facilities essential for such a park to be made available in the vicinity Mr. Mozammel was quite upbeat in his outpourings of bright future of Bangladesh in line with the Prime Minister's dream to turn the country into a 'Digital Bangladesh' by 2021, a tone that touched a chord with the audience willing to see the Park providing the scientists of our country a springboard to success.
Refuting a notion that 10,000 employments would be generated in the Hi-Tech Park, as was mentioned earlier by a speaker in his PowerPoint presentation, Mr. Mozammel who recently visited Hi-Tech parks in India said: "Not a few thousands, at least 10 million people would find jobs in the Hi-Tech Park in Kaliakoir by the grace of the Almighty".
In his address as the chief guest of the function Architect Yeafesh Osman said that Bangladesh High-Tech Park Authority Bill 2010 has already been passed by the parliament. He stressed upon the need of joint ventures of local entrepreneurs with reputed international high-tech companies to set up projects in the Kaliakoir High-Tech Park by building their own laboratories and factories in accordance with their own designs and styles befitting their project requirements. He said that the government through the High-Tech Park Authority is to allot only vacant plots to interested entrepreneurs and provide them with the common infrastructural facilities.
Architect Osman while narrating the experiences he gathered during his recent visits of Hi-Tech parks in many countries of the world, especially those in Bangalore in neighboring India urged upon the IT professionals of our country to follow the footsteps of the IT wizards in India and Singapore.
An architect by profession and an enthusiastic amateur poet Mr. Osman is confident that the talents of our country, given their proven track records, can turn anything impossible into possible in whatever the field: science, arts, sports, economics, adventures or any other innovations. He cited as bright examples of Bangladeshi talents the recent innovation in jute genome sequence discovered by a group of Bangladeshi scientists led by Professor Dr. Maqsudul Alam and the conquering of the Mount Everest by Musa Ibrahim, another Bangladeshi hero.
Architect Osman advised the scientists to carry on their researches relentlessly to whet their appetite for more and more knowledge. He recited two lines of an allegorical poem he instantly composed in Bangla for his message to strike home: "A river dies when its water ceases to move; a scientist dies when his mind ceases to research".
In Bangladesh scientists are there to continue their researches relentlessly, but laboratories are not there in the public sector to continue their uninterrupted existence -- mainly due to change of doggedly rival political parties in governing the nation every five years.
A laboratory or for that matter any long-term project in Bangladesh commissioned by one government historically has to hibernate at least for five years if the next government changes hands.
It's an irony in our country, perhaps the only country in the world, where our political leaders loath to participate in a long relay race of a team composed of a variety of political parties for the sake of national development. Our political parties believe only in solo race. Therefore, unless a political party holds uninterrupted governing power at least for a decade no long-term project in the public sector -- call it high-tech or low-tech -- is going to bear fruits on the soil of Bangladesh.
The ICT ministry in fact initiated the project of the Hi-Tech Park in Kaliakoir back in the year 2003, a project that was trumpeted by the then party in power as their own achievement. But with the departure of the alliance government in October 2006 the dream of a Hi-Tech Park seems to have been still in the incubator; there has practically been not much of progress in its implementation except constructing an administrative building, acquisition of land and passage of the Bangladesh High-Tech Park Authority Bill 2010.
A lot of time has been wasted by the successive governments in foot-dragging and indecision on the ownership model of the park. The bureaucrats, politicians, civil societies and the scientists are still wrangling over options of three ownership models: maximum government ownership, private-public partnership or wholly private ownership.
The Hi-Tech Park in Kaliakoir today would perhaps have been pulsating with life and created thousands of jobs by this time if the whole lot were leased out, for instance, to any of the global giants like Microsoft or TATA for developing an ICT village or any other emerging technologies on condition that they would have to build the infrastructures themselves, create Bangladeshi talents through establishing learning institutes inside the park and employ only Bangladeshi people in their research, development and production activities.
There is a huge Bangladeshi Diaspora in the West comprising hundreds of Bangladeshis who are working in different developed countries as qualified IT experts and many of them would love to come back to their home to invest both their talents and savings if they are offered opportunities in building the Hi-Tech Park in joint ventures with the companies they are now working for.
However, participants in the conference were excited to learn many development efforts being undertaken by various stakeholders in both public and private sectors. One such effort is to set up a world-class ICT Institute that may ultimately be turned into an IT University under Public-Private Partnership with Bangladesh Computer Samity and the Ministry of Science and ICT entrusted with its implementation. Such a university will undoubtedly serve as a fountain to ensure a smooth supply of resource persons to man the Hi-Tech Park. It is hoped that wards of middleclass families who are meritorious students but cannot really afford high education expenses to study in private universities at home or abroad will be given special preference to enroll themselves in the proposed IT Institute.
A bright future is awaiting Bangladesh with the tremendous growth in IT sector during the last one decade with a potential for generating annual income of US dollar 400 million through business process outsourcing and exportation of software. It is high time we invited foreign investors to invest in this sector in Bangladesh. ICT associations like Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) having more than 700 member companies and Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) having about 150 member companies can play their pivotal roles in this regard.
What is now needed in our country is an eco-friendly IT environment to develop innovative technologies to both reduce poverty and enhance industrialization with an eye also to address the environmental challenges. Well-coordinated participation of our investors, academics, companies and local authorities is an important prerequisite to achieve such a truly intelligent IT environment.
Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park may be the first stepping stone in our journey towards a justly digital future, provided our country is ridden of all the negativities-from bureaucratic tangles to poor law and order. For Hi-Tech industries to flourish in the realm of our economy there should also be an end to the seesawing games in the realm of our politics.
What is however most needed is our determination to leapfrog to high-tech---not low-tech---for our survival and advancement in this age of neck-breaking global competitions.
Hi-Tech Park, still a dream seven years after
