Bangladesh: Digital Service Transformation for Access and Resilience

pipeline

Prospective

The project consists of the following five (5) components:Component 1: Affordable Quality Broadband aims to enhance the quality and availability of affordable broadband services through private capital leverage. It will expand broadband access in underserved rural areas by focusing on fiber connectivity to cell towers, ensuring universal accessibility, reliability, and affordability. The component will also strengthen disaster and climate-resilient infrastructure to maintain connectivity during adverse conditions.Subcomponent 1.1: Enabling Legal and Regulatory Environment for the Digital Economy will strengthen legal, policy, and regulatory frameworks and institutional capacity to support Bangladesh's digital transformation.Sub-component 1.2: Facilitating private capital to expand broadband connectivity and climate resilience. This component will finance the shortfall of the Availability Payment (AP) scheme, which will finance the construction of an open access fiber network that can be accessed from rural cell towers, schools, post offices, and other key locations.Subcomponent 1.3 aims to expand broadband access for schools in remote areas. It will support the Government's efforts by improving digital connectivity in rural areas, focusing on government registered schools.Component 2. Enabling Digital Services through DPI. This component is designed to leverage the fundamental improvements in connectivity and generate user demand by strengthening digital public infrastructure (DPI). In the context of digital government, DPI employs a whole of government approach to replace siloed systems that are often duplicative, expensive, and inefficient.Subcomponent 2.1 : aims to enhance the functionality of the digital identification system for better service delivery. This includes supporting the ID agency, now under the Ministry of Home Affairs, in setting up ICT infrastructure and policies aligned with sustainable development principles.Subcomponent 2.2 aims to strengthen data exchange and adoption of the Bangladesh National Digital Architecture (BNDA). This includes integrating more government agencies and e-services with the existing e-service bus, which connects databases like NID, SIM registration, and birth and death records.Subcomponent 2.3 : Enabling environment to operationalize the National Personal Data Protection Act. The Bangladesh National Data Protection Act is expected to be passed by the parliament after vetting by the Legislative Division of Law Ministry.Component 3: Digital Economy and Empowerment . It will support developing both basic and advanced digital skills to facilitate the digitization of the public and private sectors, enhance the capacity of gig economy workers (freelancers)and digital entrepreneurs to contribute more effectively to the digital economy, and prepare workers for digital jobs and businesses.Component 4. Project Management and Implementation Support. This component will strengthen the capacity of the MTIT and BTRC, through the provision of management and implementation support to the MTIT in managing and overseeing project activities.Component 5. Contingency Emergency Response Component - CERC . This component will provide immediate response to an eligible crisis or emergency, as needed. In the context of the COVID-19 crisis, a CERC will allow for quick disbursement of uncommitted balances as a response measure to any crisis (current or future).

World Bank Group

Project

Broadband, Telecommunications, Residential, Government, Education