The goal of a Smart Bangladesh is to transform our nation into a developed and successful one by the year 2041. The Smart Bangladesh Vision 2041 is more comprehensive, goal-driven, inclusive, and effective than the Digital Bangladesh Vision 2021. The key players for the vision of Smart Bangladesh are the young generation of Bangladeshis, and the ultimate objective of Smart Bangladesh is to achieve Bangabandhu's dream of a Golden Bengal in a smart way in a smart world.
It aims to foster the inclusivity of all people in Bangladesh to ensure a decent standard of living for everyone while striving to ensure a prosperous country with a lower Gini ratio.
Smart Bangladesh is the bold flagship slogan as well as the outcome of the new vision of the government of Bangladesh, "Vision 2041," aiming to create a more resilient, innovative, smart, and digitally equipped nation by 2041. It strives to utilize modern technology's potential to ensure a decent standard of living for everyone, foster new business prospects, and enhance sustainable growth and development.
The concept of Smart Bangladesh evolved from the success of Digital Bangladesh Vision 2021, which is evidenced in the digitalization and advanced technology-inclusive development mantra. The concept also evolved from the global paradigm shifts in the convergence of governance and development focusing on impact leadership, sustainable development, a knowledge-based society, and the evolving concepts of smart cities and a smart world.
This bold slogan gives new impetus to the campaign Vision 2041, which aims to achieve the aspirational strategy to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and become a high-income country by 2041.
Smart Bangladesh will be built on four pillars: Developing smart citizens, assuring a smart government, managing a smart economy, and building a smart society. Once more, these pillars stand on the three foundational bases -- a knowledge-driven economy, an inclusive digital society, and a nation that cherishes innovation. These four pillars are based on three foundational components to edge out Smart Bangladesh Vision 2041.
With the accomplishment of the Digital Bangladesh Vision 2021, a smart economy coupled with smart citizens, a smart government, and a smart society will shape a developed country by 2041; that is what the country envisions for Smart Bangladesh. The government has adopted 14 action plans to put Smart Bangladesh 2041 into action.
Impact of Smart Bangladesh
A few of the results or outcomes of Smart Bangladesh that will evolve from the convergence of the four pillars include smarter agriculture, smarter commerce, smarter health care, and smarter transportation systems. The gross impact would be a prosperous nation built by the year 2041, which shall include a decent standard of living, an inclusive environment that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship, sustained economic growth that prioritizes human capital, an enhanced trend toward sustainable development, a lower Gini ratio, an improved commitment culture, advanced networking and collaboration, more open and transparent governance, and a greater appreciation for ethics and impact leadership.
Key macroeconomic indicators and targets set in the projection by the General Economics Division in 2020 show how Smart Bangladesh Vision 2041 aims to turn Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041 from a macroeconomic development perspective.
However, as it is the national strategic plan, it goes beyond the macroeconomic development to the socioeconomic standing of the government of Bangladesh, which is analyzed in the preceding part of this section of the article.
The vision of Smart Bangladesh is Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's final interpretation of Bangabandhu's dream of a Golden Bengal. The daughter of Bangabandhu, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, outlined the specifics of transforming Bangladesh into a sustainable and developed country in a scholarly article titled "Striving to Realize the Ideals of My Father," which was published by MIT Press Direct in 2021 in its ranked journal "Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization."
She emphasized how digitalization advances Bangabandhu's ideals by meeting people's seven basic needs, how it can help the nation develop to a smart level that can ensure a livable standard of living for all, and how it frees people from the chains of illiteracy, poverty, corruption, dictatorship, terrorism, and extremism.
Dr Mohammad Rafiqul Islam Talukdar is a Professor of the Faculty of Business Administration, AIUB.
