Page 75 - SAMENA Trends - December 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

enacted by the commission. The scope for manufacturing and of bandwidth that will boost internet speed and help launch
assembling of the equipment in the country would also attract 5G services in the country. The country now uses 1,600 Gbps
foreign investments along with creating job opportunity. As per the bandwidth, which was 300 Gbps at the end of 2016. It also has
instructions issued on Monday, the commission would issue two a bandwidth capacity of 2,600 Gbps from two submarine cables.
types of certificates — ‘A’ and ‘B’ — for assembling, manufacturing The third undersea cable will add another 7,200 Gbps, according
and setting up factory for making the products for local and to the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL),
international markets. Category ‘A’ entities will have to set up which will implement the project by June 2024. The cable,
testing laboratories while it would not be a requirement for the SEA-ME-WE-6, starts from Singapore and goes up to France
entities to be certified as category ‘B’. However, having contract through the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea,
with any ‘A’ category certificate-holding entity would be a must said Mamun-Al-Rashid, Planning Commission Member of the
for the category ‘B’ entity for the testing quality of the equipment Physical Infrastructure Division. It will have core landing stations
which would be manufactured in the category ‘B’ entities. The in Singapore, India, Djibouti, Egypt and France. The Bangladesh
commission in its draft instructions proposed Tk 15 lakh and Tk branch will stretch to the cable landing station at Cox’s Bazar
10 lakh as enlistment fee for category ‘A’ and category ‘B’ entities through the Bay of Bengal. The country will have to set up 13,275
respectively while the certificate renewal fee has been set at Tk km core submarine cable network and 1,850 km branch submarine
7.5 lakh and Tk 5 lakh for category ‘A’ and ‘B’ entities. The annual cable network. At the beginning of 2018, the government had
fee has been set at Tk 2.5 lakh for both categories and they would asked the state-run BSCCL to take steps to get connected with
enjoy a five-year exemption from paying annual fee. With a view to the third undersea link. Once the project is implemented, it will be
encouraging technological production, the government has been possible to meet the growing demand of uninterrupted modern
providing a huge tax break for the firms located in hi-tech parks. broadband internet services across the country, said Shamsul
The entities located in the country’s hi-tech parks are waived from Alam, Member of the General Economics Division (GED) under
paying any income tax in the first seven years of their operations. the Planning Commission. It would also be possible to export
Such entities would enjoy 70 per cent tax waiver for three years the extra bandwidth to the neighboring states of India (Seven
after the seven-year tax holiday. Since the issuance of a huge tax sisters) and Bhutan. Besides, Saudi Arabia also expressed their
break for the mobile handset assembling in the budget for the eagerness to procure bandwidth from Bangladesh. The country’s
fiscal year 2017-2018, the telecom regulator formulated policy to first submarine cable SEA-ME-WE-4 was launched in 2005 and
issue license for the assembling of mobile phone handsets. The the second one, SEA-ME-WE-5, was launched in 2017. These
BTRC has so far granted registration to 11 entities to assemble two submarine cables are being operated through a separate
and manufacture handsets in the country. Of them, 10 entities consortium. The lifespan of the first submarine cable is 20 years,
have already started assembling and manufacturing handsets which will end in 2025. As the first submarine cable is 15 years
in the country. In FY20, total 1.5 crore mobile handsets were old, the rate of service disruption is higher due to maintenance-
assembled locally against 80 lakh handsets in FY19. related reasons. The BSCCL's revenue rose to Tk 250 crore in
(December 8, 2020) newagebd.net fiscal 2019-20 from Tk 103 crore in fiscal 2016-17 on the back of
a boost in bandwidth usage through undersea cables, according
The government of Bangladesh approved a Tk 693.2 crore project to its annual report for 2020. Also, at meeting of the Executive
to set up the country’s third submarine cable to meet the fast- Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), which was
growing demand for connectivity. With the installation of the new chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, three other projects
submarine cable, Bangladesh will get 6 terabytes per second involving Tk 1,422 crore were approved. (December 5, 2020) dhakatribune.com

Egypt

Egypt’s information and communication technology (ICT) sector Internet users to population ratio increased to 57.3 percent in FY
grew by 15.2 percent in 2020, becoming the most growing 2019/2020, up from 47.6 percent in FY 2018/2019. It also noted
among other sectors, despite the COVID-19 repercussions, the that the sector’s infrastructure development cost recorded $400
cabinet’s media center revealed in a report. The report showed million in the second half of 2020, which helped in increasing the
that the sector’s share in Egypt’s GDP rose to EGP 108 billion in Internet speed to 33.2MB per second by the end of November.
FY 2019/2020 (4.4 percent), up from EGP 93.5 billion (3.8 percent) Concerning digital transformation efforts, the report said that
in FY 2018/2019. The ICT sector’s exports increased in 2020 to 34 digital governmental services have been provided through
$4.1 billion, up from $3.6 billion in 2019 (growing by 13 percent). Egypt’s Digital Platform, which was established in July. The report
Investments in the sector rose by 35 percent to EGP 48.1 billion, showed that 544,400 Egyptians have subscribed to the platform
up from EGP 35.4 billion in FY 2018/2019, stated the report. The thus far. The platform helped them to obtain the governmental
report said that 1,336 ICT companies have been founded with a services they need via mobile phone applications, postal offices,
total capital of EGP 1.34 billion. The report demonstrated that communication centers and service centers. It added that

75 DECEMBER 2020