Highlights

• ICT sector plagued by corruption
• Hi-Tech parks fail to attract investors
• Lack of transparency in project implementation
• Misuse of funds to benefit preferred vendors
• Calls for robust project evaluations

The White Paper on the State of the Bangladesh Economy, submitted to the Chief Adviser today (1 December), identified the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector as one of the most affected by corruption.

“The review of the White Paper puts the banking sector on top of the most corruption-ravaged sectors, followed by physical infrastructure, and energy and power,” it reads.

ICT was also identified as one of the most corruption-affected sectors by its operational and technological novelty, it added.

The White Paper committee’s comment highlights years-long corruption allegations in the key sector the Awami League pledged to improve during the 2008 election for the sake of national progress.

And the story later frustrated the youth and technology experts due to huge waste of taxpayers’ money in improper projects. These lacked transparencies and were alleged to benefit people close to the then regime.

In the one and half decades of Sheikh Hasina’s ruling, the state spent nearly Tk29,000 crore to build “Digital Bangladesh” and later “Smart Bangladesh by 2041.”

Most of the funds were allocated to infrastructure projects, which still require justification from sector experts. For instance, Hi Tech parks outside major cities barely attracted investors.

Government-funded projects aimed at youth ICT training, women empowerment, and local app and game development, costing hundreds of crores of Taka, appear to have primarily benefited officials and their preferred vendors, reveals the gradually unfolding facts.

The interim government in August formed a committee to evaluate the ongoing projects already recommended to downsize them in lots of unjustified cases. It will also dig deeper to find the anomalies in the already finished projects.

In an example of how the government projects were being justified in questioned ways, the white paper mentioned a 2013-18 ICT Division project “Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment, and Governance Projects” that had a 43% cost increase to Tk774 crore, from its original budget of Tk521.97 crore.

According to the White Paper, the large capacity-building initiative aimed to promote the IT sector and train 30,000 individuals for employment within it. The evaluation report from the Planning Ministry’s Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division showed strong satisfaction with the project’s success.

However, it overlooked the contributions of training institutions, colleges, and universities that also played a role in advancing the sector, the White Paper stated.

Additionally, the quality of the evaluation report was inadequate, as it failed to distinguish the marginal impacts of training 30,000 individuals on the entire IT sector.

This analytical weakness in assessing the project’s impacts has contributed to the continuation of various ICT and other projects that lack tangible benefits.

“It highlights the need for more robust evaluations to ensure that future initiatives are grounded in a clear understanding of their actual contributions to the sector,” said the White Paper.

Bangladesh lags behind many comparator countries in a number of technological indexes, despite the digital and smart nation narratives.

Web Summit has announced today that it will host hundreds of curated community meetups in Lisbon this November, powered by its proprietary software, Summit Engine.

This initiative is part of Web Summit’s renewed mission to foster meaningful connections and communities. By bringing people with similar backgrounds, interests and objectives together in community meetups, Web Summit hopes to make the event feel smaller and more intimate for attendees, as it continues to grow and scale across the world. Hundreds of these community meetups will take place alongside signature challenging discussions on how technology is shaping the world.

So far, this year’s top speakers include Yinon C. (Yinon Costica), co-founder of cybersecurity powerhouse WIZ , which recently made waves by turning down a US$23 billion offer from Google; Julie De Moyer , LVMH ’s recently appointed chief data and AI officer; Lidiane Jones , CEO of popular dating app Bumble Inc. , which harnesses AI to improve matchmaking; Cristiano Anon, CEO of Qualcomm, the company working to create bigger, better, and more affordable AI chips; and Meredith Whittaker, president of encrypted messaging app Signal, which is fighting against government measures to scan citizen’s private messages.

Also taking to the stage will be Alibaba.com president Kuo Zhang ; Škoda Auto CMO Meredith Kelly; Amazon Web Services VP of AI Matt Wood ; Meta’s global head of consumer marketing, Eshan Ponnadurai; Manchester United CEO Omar Berrada, and much more. They will be joined, by world comms@websummit.com leaders and changemakers, including Germany’s Vice Chancellor, Robert Habeck; Portugal’s minister of youth and modernisation, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, and exiled Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López.

Global tech companies, including IBM, Adobe, Intercom, Samsung Next, and Niantic Labs will exhibit on the floor alongside financial giants such as Visa and American Express. Other notable partners include Novo Nordisk, Bosch, EDP, and KPMG.

New for 2024: Hundreds of curated meetings

Of course, Web Summit isn’t just about the speakers – it’s about the connections. That’s why this November, our curated meetups, powered by Summit Engine, will bring together attendees with shared roles or interests in AI, fintech, crypto, food tech, sustainability, and more.

To do this, Web Summit’s data science team uses in-house software to group attendees who have common interests and backgrounds, helping uncover emerging communities. This technology was tested this year at Web Summit Rio in April, and at Collision in Toronto in June. From data scientists in Uruguay and food tech startup founders and investors to public sector AI innovators, Web Summit wants to make sure that the right people find each other at our events. Attendees can use the Web Summit app to easily connect and stay in touch with those they’ve met long after the event ends in November

“This is going to be our biggest but also our smallest event yet … we aim to host thousands of community meetups at the event and across Lisbon in November. We are evolving from being one large event to becoming a collection of a thousand deep, interconnected experiences,“ said Paddy Cosgrave .

“Over the last 15 years, the world has changed in many ways, and we’ve always been committed to adapting and re-evaluating our mission and goals to meet evolving challenges, ideas, and global circumstances. We’re currently in an especially charged moment in time,” Paddy continued.

“We are bigger than ever, but our mission remains the same – connecting the people, companies and ideas that change the word. Ultimately, the best event experience is when you walk away with a stronger network than you came with,” added SVP of product Brian Flanagan .

Just announced

The full list of speakers at Web Summit is being announced today:

● Lidiane Jones, CEO of Bumble

● Anastasis Germanidis , co-founder and CTO of Runway

● Meredith Kelly , CMO of Škoda Auto

● Sarah Myers West , co-executive chair of AI Now Institute

● Patrick Kluivert, former footballer with Barcelona and The Netherlands

● Paula Goldman , chief ethical and humane use officer at Salesforce

● Omar Berrada, CEO of Manchester United

● Hans Niemann , chess grandmaster

● Meredith Whittaker , president of Signal Messenger

● Munya Chawawa, actor and comedian

● Atul Bhardwaj j, chief digital and technical officer at the LEGO Group

● Smita Hashim , chief product officer at Zoom

● Alex Hirschi, founder of Supercar Blondie

New speakers are being added regularly on the Web Summit speaker page

About Web Summit:

Web Summit is a technology events company, bringing together a global community of founders, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors to connect and exchange ideas about the technology and trends shaping the world. Web Summit events – including Web Summit in Lisbon, Web Summit Rio in South America, Web Summit Qatar in the Middle East, and RISE in Asia – have gathered nearly one million people since Web Summit’s beginnings as a 150-person conference in Dublin in 2009. Its newest event, Web Summit Vancouver, will launch in May 2025.

Useful Links:

Web Summit website: https://websummit.com/

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Web Summit YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJtkHqH4Qof97TSx7BzE5IQ

UN cybersecurity report assesses global progress in providing a safe and secure digital future for all. 

​​​​​​​Countries around the globe are improving cybersecurity efforts, but stronger actions are needed to meet evolving cyberthreats, according to the Global Cybersecurity Index 2024, released today by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 

On average, countries have taken more cybersecurity-related actions and improved their cybersecurity commitments since the last index was released in 2021. 

Worrisome threats highlighted in the report include ransomware attacks targeting government services and other sectors, cyber breaches affecting core industries, costly system outages, and breaches of privacy for individuals and organizations. 

“Building trust in the digital world is paramount,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, ITU Secretary-General. “The progress seen in the Global Cybersecurity Index is a sign that we must continue to focus efforts to ensure that everyone, everywhere can safely and securely manage cyberthreats in today’s increasingly complex digital landscape.” 

A new assessment with sharper focus 

ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Index 2024 (GCI 2024) assesses national efforts across five pillars, representing country-level cybersecurity commitments: legal, technical, organizational, capacity development, and cooperation. 

GCI 2024 also uses a new five-tier analysis, a shift that allows a greater focus on each country’s advances with cybersecurity commitments and resulting impacts. 

The report places 46 countries in Tier 1, the highest of the five tiers, reserved for “role modelling” countries that demonstrate a strong commitment in all five cybersecurity pillars. 

Most countries are either “establishing” (Tier 3) or “evolving” (Tier 4) in terms of cybersecurity. The 105 countries in these tiers have largely expanded digital services and connectivity but still need to integrate cybersecurity measures. 

A “cybercapacity gap” – characterized by limitations in skills, staffing, equipment and funding – was evident in many countries and across all regional groups. 

“The Global Cybersecurity Index 2024 shows significant improvements by countries that are implementing essential legal measures, plans, capacity building initiatives, and cooperation frameworks especially in strengthening incident response capabilities,” said Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “ITU’s cybersecurity projects and programmes are supporting those national efforts to more effectively manage cyberthreats, and I hope that the progress demonstrated by this latest index encourages countries to do more in developing secure and trustworthy digital systems and networks.” 

Regional and national assessments 

According to GCI 2024, the Africa region has advanced the most on cybersecurity since 2021. All world regions show improvement since the last report. ​

The world’s least developed countries (LDCs) have also started making gains, though they still need support to advance further and faster. GCI 2024 data shows that the average LDC has now reached the same level of cybersecurity status that many of the non-LDC developing countries had in 2021. 

Land-locked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS) continue to face resource and capacity constraints on cybersecurity efforts. 

GCI 2024 includes individual assessments and provides a clear status report and a roadmap of activities to make further progress on cybersecurity. 

Other key findings of the GCI 

Legal measures are the strongest cybersecurity pillar for most countries: 177 countries have ​at least one regulation on either personal data protection, privacy protection, or breach notification in force or in progress. 

Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs) are crucial for national cybersecurity: 139 countries have active CIRTs, with various levels of sophistication, up from 109 in the 2021 index. 

National Cybersecurity Strategies (NCS) are becoming more prevalent: 132 countries have a National Cybersecurity Strategy as of 2024, up from 107 in the 2021 index. 

Cyber awareness campaigns are widespread: 152 countries have conducted cyber awareness initiatives targeting the general population, with some also targeting specific demographics such as vulnerable and underrepresented populations, to create a culture of cybersecurity and address potential risks. 

Incentives for the cybersecurity industry continue evolving: Governments are promoting the cybersecurity industry through incentives, grants, and scholarships, aiming to enhance cybersecurity skills and foster research in the field, with 127 countries reporting some form of cybersecurity-related research and development. 

Many countries cooperate on cybersecurity through existing treaties: 92% of countries (166) reported being part of an international treaty or comparable cooperation mechanism for cybersecurity capacity development, or information sharing, or both. Putting cybersecurity agreements and frameworks into practical operation remains challenging. 

Capacity ​development and technical pillars are relatively weak in most countries. 123 countries reported having trainings for cybersecurity professionals, up from 105 in 2021. In addition, 110 countries had frameworks to implement nationally or internationally recognized cybersecurity standards, up from 103 in 2021. 

Capacity development initiatives need to be reinforced: 153 countries have integrated cybersecurity into national curricula at some level, but cybersecurity trainings and awareness-raising varies widely across regions. Developing a strong domestic cybersecurity industry is essential to sustain progress. 

Countries need to focus on protecting children online: 164 countries have legal measures in place for child online protection; only 94 countries reported associated strategies and initiatives, indicating a gap in implementation. 

Cybersecurity assessments leading to action 

As cybersecurity continues to evolve, GCI offers a clear picture of where countries are and a roadmap of activities to make progress. The report offers 11 key recommendations, from enhancing critical infrastructure to providing cybersecurity training. 

GCI 2024 suggests that countries can prioritize high-impact activities, including:

• implementing legal measures applicable across all sectors;
• developing and regularly updating a comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy and a practical, concrete action plan;
• enhancing incident-response capabilities;
• delivery of capacity building and training to cybersecurity professionals, youth and vulnerable groups to strengthen cybersecurity skills;
• fostering domestic and international cooperation and collaboration on information-sharing, training opportunities, and capacity development.

ITU, the UN Agency for Digital Technologies, aims to connect the estimated 2.6 billion people who currently remain offline. Most of the globe’s offline population live in developing countries, with the widest gaps in the least developed countries. 

ITU established the Global Cybersecurity Index in 2015. The report series identifies areas for improvement and encourages countries to act on strengthening cybersecurity.