Connectivity in education is key to Bangladesh stepping into the digital era, says a top regional official of Cisco Systems, a leading global supplier of networking equipment and network management, reports bdnews24.com.

In an exclusive interview with the news agency, Amit Malik, vice president for Eastern India and the SAARC region, said the country needed an 'inclusive growth'-focused objective for going fully digital.

It also needed to ensure that the rural areas have the same opportunity as their urban counterparts to access education, he added.

Education would open up opportunities for growing in any and every aspect, according to the Cisco official.

On the bottlenecks for a growing IT industry, Malik cited poor bandwidth situation of Bangladesh as the major hurdle along with the slow speed of execution of policies.

"Also, customs clearance takes long time...it's the highest in this region actually."

He also highlighted the need for a rethink of the regulatory framework to open up more spectrums.

"Until last year, IP telephony was a strict no-no, but now it's at least open for closed user groups."

Malik said that IP telephony was now in the centre of interest in the Bangladeshi market.

"And the technology uses low bandwidth as well."

Clients were asking for IP telephony with video facility to save time for the congested traffic situation of Dhaka, he added.

"High-end video might not be possible for now, considering the bandwidth situation."

The Bangladeshi market was, however, growing very fast, in fact "much faster than other parts of this region", according to Malik.

He said that Cisco's business grew on an average 30 per cent year-on-year over the last decade.

And potential was huge as the current government was committed towards building a 'digital Bangladesh' by 2021.

Cisco considered the financial sector of Bangladesh as their key focus.

The banking industry had witnessed a drastic change in terms of automation in recent times, said Malik.

"We have not only back-end facilities but also solutions for retail and customer experience."

Citing an example of virtual adviser, he said that it would provide instant consultation to clients on queries through video conferencing.

"The whole thing is now how you woo the customer with a customer experience."

Moving on to the networking industry, Malik said that the company had now shifted solution-based approach from a hardware-based one.

"People nowadays are not asking to connect offices rather they are asking how it would improve productivity."

Malik saw video through IP as the future of the industry.