Speaker of the Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury on Monday gave a shout-out to Radwan Mujib Siddiq’s Bangladesh thoughts published in the latest edition of the Centre for Research and Information (CRI) policy magazine WhiteBoard.
In her closing remarks of the 13th session of the 11th national parliament, the Speaker read out Radwan Mujib’s editorial note in the fourth issue of the WhiteBoard released on June 16, and said that Bangladesh’s development discourse needs to be framed as a model.
Grandson of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Radwan Mujib is the editor of this magazine which has made a dent into the policy circles of Bangladesh within a year.
In this edition, he said, as Bangladesh looks to consolidate its position as a middle-income country, it is time to move on from referring to the ‘Bangladesh Miracle’ and start focusing on the ‘Bangladesh Model’.
“As embodied by Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh, this model involves people-centric policies coupled with a focus on innovation and technology,” he said writing the editorial of the magazine.
Members of the parliament gave a round of applause when the Speaker read out the paragraph of ‘Bangladesh model’ and mentioned the name of Radwan Mujib.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who was also present in the parliament at that time was seen putting her hands together to show her approval.
The one year old WhiteBoard is reported to have been targeting researchers both in Bangladesh and internationally from US, UK and other destinations.
Radwan Mujib is a trustee of the CRI which is the research wing of the ruling Awami League. He is a strategy consultant and youth advocate. He also advises various international organisations and government agencies on strategy and communications. He pursued his graduate studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Writing the editorial, he said ‘Vision 2021’ laid out a clear path to Bangladesh becoming a middle-income country by its 50th anniversary.
“At the heart of this vision lay Digital Bangladesh, an ambitious plan to accelerate the use of ICTs across the country and drive growth across all sectors. But Digital Bangladesh represented more than hardware, software and connectivity.
“Instead, it embodied the very spirit of Vision 2021 – innovation, resilience and resourcefulness. Most significantly, both Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh were models of people-centric development,” he wrote.
“They were developed with an intricate understanding of the needs, capacity and characteristics of the population they were designed to benefit. Digital Bangladesh was neither top down nor bottom up; it was top to bottom. It was everywhere at once, and the whole country was the target user group”.\
He said: “The plan was: lay the infrastructure, ensure access and see what happens. The rapid rate of digitalisation in the country over the last decade or so shows that policymakers were right to gamble on innovation.
“The people of the country proved to be enthusiastic adopters of technology and quickly grasped how to apply it in their daily lives.”
In this issue of WhiteBoard, they looked at what needs to be done to take the next step in Bangladesh’s innovation journey.
