Mostly through Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs, globalisation has integrated into the world trade as an inevitable part. In the past some historical components were determining the destiny of mankind. Since we are entrapped in the cyberspace, internet-fuelled globalisation is determining our fate and fortune.
The old concept of the international business has taken a new form termed "globalisation," which opened windows of opportunities as well as threats to some economic sectors of the developing nations. But ICTs have become one of the core tools to divert the threats appeared from imposing the discriminatory rules of globalisation.
ICT sector in Bangladesh is blessed for the free trade across the globe. World famous consultancy bodies AT Kearney and KPMG branded the country as one of the outsourcing destinations in the world. Software export growth was more than double even in the recession period. It is anticipated that rise of the local freelancers may earn more than total income of the software industry. IT revolution could be clicked on from freelancers' bedrooms where their computers are powered on.
We saw that in the west technology revolution exploded from a mere garage, even dropout students acquired unique expertise in software manoeuvering, changed the world, and they have become the richest persons before the age of 25. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were not scientists at all, not scholars, not from the corporate world, but they turned into the scientists of scientists, and the businessmen of businessmen.
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg connected his friends on a website, we know as facebook, and Linus Benedict Torvalds tried to enrich his personal operating system Linux by sharing on the web. Even they were not aware of how they were going to change the world. The 25/26-year old Jawed Karim, a Bangladeshi origin German-American, was one of the three, who founded YouTube that changed way of learning, information sharing and entertainment.   Â
Scholars coined globalisation as the unification of the world's economic orders by reducing barriers to international trade as tariffs, export fees, transit levy and import quotas. It praised in expanding wealth and services through unifying the international division of labour with boosting our international relations with inviting more competition. The transnational exchange of views, ideas, linguistic and cultural affairs and their dissemination also belong to the term "globalisation."
Connecting all the parts of the world with lowering trade and political barriers in doing business, which was the motto of globalisation, came under a severe criticism for setting a new form of colonisation through the multinational companies and increasing inequality between nations by confronting poor with the rich.
After the break-up of the Soviet Union and knocking down the Berlin Wall, globalisation started getting much focused due to trade liberalisation, free flow of information, coming out from conservative and over-protective outlooks. At the same time, since 90s, World Wide Web (WWW) had begun connecting people with the people of other hemispheres of the world; media became more vital with disseminating news through the cyberspace; businesses without the connectivity were impossible; adaptation of cyber tools for education and entertainment were inevitable for all.
Although the term globalisation was not a new idea, that has gone through many contradictory definitions. Contrary to globalisation, now states are strengthening and confining their borders; trade, visa and immigration policy are coming under the tight grip. Day by day communication among some nations is getting harder. Recurrent restrictions and fear of terrorist attacks are limiting free movement of the people. Navigating the world without info-tech is becoming harder for the poor nations. So cyber communication is the alternative to keeping communication alive, and it is an opportunity for the people of developing nations unless they are left to the dark part of the world.
Our traditional notion: the distance between day and night has been redefined because it is not possible to sleep half of the world when another hemisphere of the world is at work. Both hemispheres of the world are the same as if there were no day and night except the 24 hours. However, it is a fact that the digital divide is still widening on the globe, including the country, because of the lethargy in adopting appropriate technology and keeping off the race of discarding old technologies for the latest ones. Technological savvy is a must for coming into the motion of internet-powered globalisation. Â
Like globalisation outsourcing is inevitable for the richer West when they have to survive in the severe capitalist competition. In the recession time, wise companies in the west looked for suitable technologies to save money and to cut cost as well as try to outsource work. A cyber-connected person from a remote village of the country can explore resources in any part of the world where he might have found difficulty to reach physically. Citizenship of a country is not a matter for you if you are logged on to WWW. Living out of the cyberspace means going in exile to Andaman Island.
In 1969, the mission called ARPANET was set up for creating a large computer network with multiple paths. Computer scientists of the military and secret services wove their networking formula to save data and information from nuclear attacks and other disasters. The internet technology came out from the military periphery; and incidentally after the break-up of the communist region it has been reshaping economics, social ideas; and connecting individuals on the Net. It is a fact that internet backboned economy is a safeguard to globalisation.
Introducing computer to the country is much older. Before India and some technologically developed nations the country set up a computer at the Atomic Energy Commission in 1964 when it was blessed with a pool of brilliant scientists. Unfortunately since 80s the country failed to understand the ICT global trend and how neighbouring countries were joining outsourcing and call centre businesses. In 90s, during the BNP-led government, one of the gross mistakes were stepping back from connecting the country with a submarine cable connection free of cost. Foolishly the then government thought the connection would channel out secret information of the country. Later the country paid much for the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable at Jhilonza in Cox's Bazar, which connected the nation with the global information highway. The 20,000 kilometres SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable project involved 14 countries of three continents from Singapore to France for 15 years. The South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe-4 project connects the country with undersea fibre-optic cable passing from Singapore through Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and a number of Middle-Eastern countries to finally land in France. But, still the country has only one connection; even some developing nations have more than one submarine cable connection.
In the late 90s price of computer and mobile phone went down because the then Awami League government decided to withdraw taxes on computer and they broke monopoly business of a mobile phone operator. From 2008 the slogan Digital Bangladesh drew attention of the citizens toward importance of the technology but still people are paying much for internet bandwidth; there are many things to do for eGovernance; most of the government's IT projects fail for corruption or inefficiency; after many years of effort the country is based on a foreign company in producing low quality MRP passport; no anti-piracy stand to protect intellectual properties that is hampering investment in the IT sector. Â
However, in the new economic world order, under the dominance of internet, the country could explore its potential if the policymakers along with entrepreneurs try to understand how the technology is determining history instead of traditional historical components.
The writer is a journalist and ICT policy researcher. He can be reached at sshuvra@gmail.com
Globalisation in the info-tech era
Shahidul K K Shuvra | Published: October 24, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
Share if you like