Data could be Bangladesh’s next tech strategy

Artificial intelligence, or AI, and advanced research have become foundational to modern innovation, enabling breakthroughs across industries, from healthcare diagnostics to precision agriculture and smart city planning. However, at the heart of every powerful AI model lies one critical element - data.

In today’s landscape, data is often described as “the new oil” because it fuels AI and machine learning algorithms, offering insights and capabilities that would otherwise be unreachable. Without diverse, high-quality datasets, even the most sophisticated AI models are ineffective.

The global big data market has been experiencing impressive growth, driven by the surge in demand across industries for robust datasets to fuel advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning applications.

According to Expert Market Research, or EMR, a leading market research and business consulting firm known for publishing over 100 research studies monthly, as of 2023, the big data market was valued at approximately $311.72 billion, with projections to reach a massive $1.09 trillion by 2032. This equates to a robust compound annual growth rate of around 14.9 percent over the forecast period. Key sectors contributing to this demand include healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and finance, where companies leverage large data volumes for predictive analytics, operational optimization, and customer insight generation.

Emerging economies like India and Brazil have already begun to harness their population-scale data as a valuable resource, demonstrating the potential to create exportable datasets that power international AI development.

Bangladesh stands at the forefront of this opportunity. With over 170 million people, a high population density, and rapid digital adoption, it is uniquely positioned to supply the data needed to meet global AI demands. This vast data reservoir spans sectors from agriculture to healthcare, where insights into local behaviours, health patterns, and market trends could be invaluable on the world stage. If managed strategically, Bangladesh has the potential to turn this underutilised data into a new, export-driven industry that could fuel both economic growth and digital transformation, establishing itself as a crucial player in the global data economy.

BANGLADESH’S COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE

Examining Bangladesh’s demographics, sector-specific data sources, and regional positioning can show why the country has a particular edge in data. This analysis reveals the unique potential Bangladesh holds and the factors differentiating it from other emerging data economies, like India and Indonesia.

Density: Bangladesh has one of the highest population densities globally, with over 1,200 people per square kilometre. For comparison, India has a density of around 484 people per square kilometre, while Indonesia stands at approximately 148 people per square kilometre.

Urban concentration: Dhaka, Chattogram, and other rapidly urbanizing areas provide a consistent, high-volume data stream. In contrast, countries like Indonesia have significant geographical dispersal due to their archipelagic nature, presenting logistical challenges in data aggregation.

Impact on sectoral data streams: High density in semi-urban and urban clusters enhances Bangladesh’s potential for healthcare data as high-density areas allow for the collection of real-time health data crucial for AI applications in disease tracking, predictive healthcare, and resource allocation. It can also be a robust source of consumer and behavioural data as dense urban settings yield high-resolution data on consumer habits, valuable for AI in retail, social media analysis, and behavioural economics—fields where AI needs vast and varied information.
Young, digital-first population: Approximately 45 percent of Bangladesh’s population is under 25, creating a vast pool of digitally active users. For comparison, about 50 percent of the population in India is under 25 and around 42 percent of Indonesia’s population is under 25. Bangladesh’s digital engagement is also rising, with nearly 100 million internet users. A younger demographic is more inclined toward social media, e-commerce, and digital payments, generating vast data that is invaluable for training AI models in sentiment analysis, recommendation systems, and online behavioural tracking. Compared to other regional players, Bangladesh has one of the fastest-growing rates of mobile and internet penetration, projected to increase with infrastructural improvements in network accessibility.

Potential for e-commerce data: E-commerce is expanding rapidly, creating streams of behavioural data that mirror user preferences, purchasing power, and regional trends, essential for AI-powered customer insights and personalisation.
SECTOR-SPECIFIC POTENTIAL

Agriculture: Bangladesh’s agrarian economy contributes about 13 percent to its GDP and employs nearly 40 percent of the workforce. This sector generates valuable data on crop patterns, soil quality, and weather, crucial for AI applications in precision agriculture and predictive modelling. Unlike some parts of India, where industrial data is more prominent, Bangladesh’s large smallholder farming base offers granular data on local agricultural trends, suitable for AI in food security and supply chain optimisation.

Healthcare: The healthcare sector is rich with potential data on patient demographics, disease prevalence, and treatment patterns, particularly valuable for AI in public health and predictive diagnostics. Bangladesh’s health sector data is often anonymised and standardised, making it compatible with global data privacy standards, which is advantageous for international healthcare AI companies looking for rich, accessible data sources.

Financial services: Microfinance and mobile banking are pivotal in Bangladesh, with mobile financial service, or MFS, providers like bKash leading mobile payment adoption. This creates a steady stream of transactional and behavioural data ideal for AI applications in financial inclusion, fraud detection, and risk assessment. Similar to Indonesia’s mobile-first financial landscape, Bangladesh’s digital financial transactions create high-resolution data across rural and urban demographics, giving AI developers nuanced insights into emerging-market financial behaviours.

CHALLENGES AND MARKET POSITIONING

Data privacy and regulation: Unlike India, where data localisation policies are stringent, Bangladesh has a more open regulatory framework, which may attract companies looking to access diverse datasets. However, as the sector grows, the country will need to bolster data privacy laws to meet international standards.

Infrastructure and investment gaps: Bangladesh’s digital infrastructure is developing, but lacks the sophistication found in neighbouring countries like India, which has significant foreign investment in data storage and processing facilities. Government incentives and foreign partnerships could bridge this gap, establishing Bangladesh as a competitive data processing hub.
Competitive edge in cost-effectiveness: Bangladesh offers a cost advantage compared to India and Indonesia, both in data processing labour and digital services. Lower operational costs can make Bangladesh an attractive outsourcing destination for data-related tasks like annotation, curation, and initial processing.

Bangladesh’s young, dense population and sector-specific data potential position it uniquely as a data provider in the global AI economy. The nation’s growth in digital adoption and mobile penetration, combined with a relatively low-cost structure and an emerging regulatory framework, makes it a highly competitive player in the data economy.

HOW TO DEVELOP A LOCAL DATA INDUSTRY

Developing a robust data-driven ecosystem requires a foundation of policies and infrastructure to facilitate effective data collection and management. A key recommendation is fostering partnerships between public agencies and private tech companies to establish a cohesive national framework. These partnerships can accelerate the digitisation of government records, encourage data-sharing agreements, and integrate data from multiple sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and commerce.

Data governance policies: To align with global data protection standards, Bangladesh needs clear policies on data privacy, anonymisation, and security. These policies would protect individual rights and increase trust among international partners. For example, adopting frameworks similar to the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in Europe or California’s California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, can ensure that Bangladeshi data meets international compliance standards, making it a viable player in global data exchange.

Developing local data hubs and labs: Establishing local data hubs and innovation labs is essential for organising, categorising, and securing data, which would streamline data export and usage. These hubs could serve as centralised points for data processing, allowing for efficient labelling, cleaning, and storage that meets international standards.

Public-private partnerships for skills development: Data hubs can also create a thriving job market in data processing, storage, and analytics. Collaboration with educational institutions can help build a workforce skilled in data science, data management, and cybersecurity.

HOW TO MAKE DATA A SELLABLE EXPORT

To make data a valuable export commodity, it’s crucial to prepare it to meet international requirements. Steps for processing data include cleaning, labelling, and structuring, which are necessary to make raw data accessible and usable for specific industries, such as healthcare, logistics, and urban planning.

Countries like India and Israel have shown the importance of data standardisation for export. By investing in processes that align with standards from organisations such as the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, and the World Health Organization, or WHO, for health-related data, Bangladesh can build its reputation as a reliable data provider. Ensuring high data quality and compatibility increases its appeal to international buyers who require specific formats for AI training and analytics.

A practical way to position data for export is by organising it into “data packages” tailored to meet the needs of particular industries, such as retail, healthcare, and finance. These packages can be bundled by data type, region, or topic to attract global buyers who need curated, sector-specific information.

Partnering with global data marketplaces, such as Data Marketplace by IBM or Dawex, where raw data and processed insights are traded, could provide an additional avenue for Bangladesh to distribute its data assets internationally. These platforms facilitate transactions, giving Bangladeshi providers access to a broader market and enabling them to create revenue from data export while expanding global reach.

By building robust infrastructure, establishing governance policies, and creating tailored data products, Bangladesh can transform its vast population data into a high-value commodity that meets the needs of international industries. This approach can lay the groundwork for a sustainable data export industry that could contribute significantly to Bangladesh’s economic future.

BRANDING BANGLADESH AS A DATA DESTINATION

For Bangladesh to position itself as a global data destination, the government’s role is pivotal. Drawing lessons from countries like Singapore and Israel, Bangladesh could enact strategic policies that promote data-centric growth. Singapore, for example, has established data-friendly regulations, robust privacy frameworks, and incentives that encourage international firms to base their data operations there. Israel’s tech policies similarly created a fertile ground for its data-driven sectors, reinforcing the country's strength in exporting tech and data services.

Bangladesh can offer tax incentives, streamlined regulations, and lower setup costs to attract global companies looking to establish data processing centres. These incentives, coupled with the country’s competitive labour costs and an increasingly tech-savvy workforce, could make Bangladesh an attractive destination for international data operations.

Developing a local industry that specialises in data services—curation, annotation, and analysis—could elevate Bangladesh’s standing as a reliable data provider. This can include nurturing a skilled workforce to provide internationally compliant data services, exporting not only raw data but also trained experts and teams who offer high-quality data labelling and management services.

Investing in upskilling programs in data science, AI, and machine learning is essential to create a steady pipeline of skilled professionals. These programs could be in partnership with educational institutions and tech companies, allowing Bangladesh to foster a homegrown industry while attracting foreign clients.

CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

Leveraging data as a national resource aligns with Bangladesh’s ambitions of accelerating its economic growth. Embracing data as an export commodity offers Bangladesh an avenue to diversify its economy, create jobs, and cultivate expertise that can help the country become a strong player in the global data economy. In doing so, Bangladesh can pave the way toward a future where it is recognised as a technology-driven nation, propelling itself into the ranks of upper-middle-income countries and beyond.

Several challenges stand in the way of Bangladesh’s emergence as a data hub. Chief among them are concerns about data privacy, a lack of widespread data literacy, and infrastructural limitations. Addressing these challenges is critical to achieving international data handling standards, as potential clients prioritise secure data management.

Robust policies on data privacy and protection are vital. Without a strong regulatory framework, attracting international clients who need to ensure data security will be difficult. Building a data protection infrastructure comparable to GDPR or CCPA would elevate Bangladesh’s reputation as a safe data destination.

To make data a sustainable growth sector for Bangladesh, it is necessary to formalise data policy frameworks by establishing comprehensive data protection policies that safeguard data rights while encouraging foreign investment.

Partnering with international tech firms could also be a major help as collaboration with experienced tech companies can bridge technology gaps and allow Bangladesh to adopt best practices in data management and export. Partnerships with international tech firms or even neighbouring tech-driven countries like India can foster technology and knowledge transfer, building a resilient and competitive data export industry.

Data holds transformative potential for Bangladesh, aligning seamlessly with the nation's aspirations for economic advancement and upper-middle-income status. By recognising data as a valuable resource, Bangladesh can fuel job creation, attract foreign investment, and diversify its export base. Embracing data as a strategic asset positions the country not only to contribute meaningfully to the global data economy but also to foster sustainable, technology-driven growth domestically. This strategy could elevate Bangladesh’s global standing, establishing it as a competitive and trusted destination in the world’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.

[Mahmudur R Manna is a technology leader for Southeast Asia at a global technology company with over 20 years of experience and specialises in driving innovation and growth in the technology sector]