The Tier-IV National Data Centre
Many of the government
offices have successfully converted the extant
analogous system to a
digital one. Yet a lot more ought to be done
Some years ago, the government of Bangladesh expressed its commitment to digitise everything with the slogan of making a Digital Bangladesh. It would not be right to say that it was all a slogan since the country has made remarkable progress in expanding the internet coverage and increasing number of internet users. Though its Doel project was an utter failure and wastage of government fund, it is true many of the government offices have successfully converted the extant analogous system to a digital one. Yet many things ought to be done.
In this regard, the Tier-IV National Data Centre is one of the prime development needs and it is good to know that the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given her consent for receiving a Chinese governments concessional loan for that purpose. It is expected that the $144millionequivalent to Tk. 1,201loan agreement with the Exim Bank of China will be signed soon since the loan negotiation is almost final and Bangladesh government is eager to have this Tier-IV National Data Centre.
According to a report published in this newspaper yesterday, the condition of the interest rate of the loan is very small, if not minimal: two per cent with 0.2 per cent management fee and 0.2 per cent commitment fee. There is a five years grace period to loan repayment period fixed at 20 years. For the establishing of the data centre, the Information and Communication Technology Division already signed a commercial contract with the two selected Chinese Government companies, ZTE Holdings Co. Ltd and M/S ZTE Corporation.
Now in line with the governments commitment to build a digital Bangladesh, ensuring a fail-safe data storage capacity is very crucial and once completed by June 2018the slated time framethe data centre at Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park will be immensely helpful in preserving information by greatly reducing the use of paper in offices. Digitisation, if managed properly, can also be effective in containing corruption in the relevant areas. As the data centre will be equipped with cloud computing and G-Cloud technologies, its hosting capacity will be huge and according to the state minister for ICT, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, it will be the worlds fifth largest data centre.
The development of Bangladesh crucially depends on how the nation can utilise the latest technologies in practical purposes especially in the ITC sector and it is expected that the Tier-IV National Data Centre will be successfully completed to serve that purpose.
