Bangladesh ICT Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023-2028)

The Bangladesh ICT Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 1.83% over the next five years. Bangladesh's growing emphasis on digital technology, cyber security, artificial intelligence, robotics, healthcare, and IT is significantly driving the market's growth.

Key Highlights

• The increasing demand to explore and adopt digital technologies and initiatives, the increase in the overall demand for digitalization and scalable IT infrastructure, the wide adoption of the 4G and 5G networks, and the rising penetration of technology giants are boosting the growth of the ICT market significantly.
• According to the IMF (International Monetary Fund), Bangladesh's GDP is expected to grow to USD 4171.06 by 2027. The county's GDP is growing significantly with increasing IT investments, creating new growth opportunities for the Bangladesh ICT market.
• Key players in the ICT market are taking initiatives to deploy 5G services in Bangladesh. For Instance, Grameenphone began 5G trials in all divisional cities to escalate the transition of 'Smart Bangladesh.' In July last year, Grameenphone carried out the nation's first 5G trial run with a few use cases in Dhaka and Chattogram.
• Government authorities are working with private IT and telecom service providers to expand their telecom sector. For Instance, BASIS (The Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services) held a special event in London to promote Bangladesh's ICT industry in the United Kingdom.
• The COVID-19 pandemic had minimal impact on the Bangladesh ICT market. But during the COVID-19 lockdown, the government of Bangladesh developed a roadmap to fight the pandemic and ensuing crisis and to find innovative ways to overcome this problem. The software Industry is one of the 18 priority sectors selected based on the impact of COVID-19 on the sector and its potential for transformation of the economy and society. The software industry in Bangladesh has a remarkably optimistic future in terms of growth potential. Industry experts estimate that the overall revenue reduced by 20 to 25% due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Without the proper intervention of the government and adaptive policy, reformulation has a great role to play in accomplishing the goals and creating new growth opportunities for the ICT market.

Key Market Trends

Growing Demand for Cloud Technology

• ICT market vendors widely adopt cloud computing for application development and testing, resource management, data storage, backup, orchestration services, etc. Cloud computing technology is adopted across various sectors, including IT and telecom, healthcare, BFSI, manufacturing, retail, media, and entertainment.
• The country's BFSI sectors depend on deploying cloud-based services for secured payment gateways. For instance, Meghna Bank in Bangladesh has moved to a new Huawei modular data center in Dhaka.
• Key players in the ICT market upgrade their existing technology with cloud computing solutions primarily drives the market growth. For Instance, Microsoft has opened a Microsoft for Startups Founder Hub in Bangladesh to help Asian start-ups. The new platform offers technical tools and USD 300,000 in investment to assist founders in expanding their businesses. Tools will include secure cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, GitHub Enterprise, and Visual Studio Enterprise.
• For Instance, BDCCL (Bangladesh Data Center Company Limited), the Bangladesh government-owned data storage and disaster recovery services provider, has chosen Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to provide the Bangladesh government with sovereign-hosted cloud services. Such initiatives, led by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division, aim to expand the use of secure, sovereign-hosted, enterprise-class cloud and digital technologies across all government agencies and ministries.
• Furthermore, the increasing investments by the government in promoting the development of numerous technologies, such as 5G, AI, IoT, machine learning, Big Data, etc. Additionally, the emergence of digital transformation is expected to drive the growth of the ICT market. For instance, On January this year, the Sri Lanka High Commission in Dhaka hosted a virtual meeting with the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) in Sri Lanka and the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) to explore the opportunities for enhancing cooperation in the ICT sector and digital economy of both countries.
• Globalization in this region and the growing need for adopting advanced technologies such as the cloud, IoT, and AI are boosting the market's growth. According to the IMF, Bangladesh's GDP will be USD 4,171.06 by 2027. This indicates that the GDP is growing, and the Bangladesh ICT market is also expected to grow over the next five years.

The IT and Telecom Sector is Expected to Drive the Market

• The government is taking initiatives to boost the country's IT and telecom sectors because of the growing demand for digital transformation. For Instance, the Bangladesh government's Posts and Telecommunications Division expanded its initiative on the project of fifth-generation (5G) mobile internet services in collaboration with Teletalk, intending to offer 5G technology-based mobile services to the general public. Such initiatives from the government will bring new growth opportunities for the Bangladesh ICT market.
• The demand for greater agility and flexibility in the IT infrastructure is driving the growth of the ICT market. For Instance, BDCCL (Bangladesh Data Center Company Limited) is a storage company specializing in data storage. It stores data using several forms of virtualized storage, which major organizations generally use. These businesses prioritize providing dependable and quick access. Furthermore, it assists them in meeting the stringent government standards for their safety. To achieve Digital Bangladesh's goal, Bangladesh has constructed the world's seventh-largest tier-IV data center in Kaliakoir, Gazipur. Such infrastructure initiatives will bring new growth opportunities for the Bangladesh ICT market.
• The transition to 3G, 4G, and 5G is still rising in the country due to expanding new networks and increasing demand for high-speed connectivity services. For instance, Huawei and Nokia partnered with Teletalk to deploy the nation's first 5G network in limited areas of Dhaka.
• According to GSMA, smartphone adoption in Bangladesh will grow by 75% (138 Million) by 2025. The increasing population of adults in the country is increasingly using smartphones. Thus, the growing population will increase the demand for ICT products and services.
• The growth in the telecom industry is mainly due to the increasing population with the rising adoption of broadband services in the country. According to the Ookla Speedtest Global Index, Bangladesh ranked 102 with a median fixed broadband download speed of 34.85 Mbps in November last year. Fixed broadband services penetration is growing significantly and thus increasing the demand for the telecom services sector.

Competitive Landscape

The Bangladesh ICT market is moderately competitive and moving toward the fragmented stage as the market currently consists of various significant players. Several key players in the ICT market, IBM Corporation, Google LLC, Oracle, Cisco, and Microsoft Corporation, are putting constant efforts to bring advancements.

In August 2022, Colocity, a Dell and Microsoft cloud service partner, launched the Microsoft Azure stack hub hybrid cloud in Bangladesh to assist local businesses in enhancing productivity by securing data at a low cost.

In August 2022, Microsoft opened a Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub in Bangladesh, continuing to promote innovation among Asia's most talented startups.

Additional benefits of purchasing the report:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

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