Government E-Service Delivery in Rural Bangladesh: A Public-Private Partnership Approach

Abstract

This paper reviews and analyzes government e-service delivery through Union Digital Centers (UDCs), being identified as telecenters. With the emergence of e-governance, e-services delivery has become expedited across different countries in the world including Bangladesh to foster socio-economic development. However, the concept of ‘digital divide’ or ‘digital gap’ limits the ultimate success of e-delivery services by increasing the gap between rich and poor. In connection to the digital gap, literature evidence that telecenters have largely failed to reach targeted hardcore poor. This research has used a survey technique to collect data from 383 respondents located at 14 different UDCs and seven divisions. The findings of the paper contemplate a positive response in terms of availability, cost, convenience, and delivery of services. Nevertheless, strengthening the approach of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) remains a necessity to reach the success goal in e-governance. This study would be particularly helpful for practitioners or government policy-making agencies to identify perceptions on e-services at root level.

Keywords: telecenters, e-governance, e-service delivery, socio-economic development, public-private partnership, Bangladesh

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-2-12