Harnessing artificial intelligence for Bangladesh
The global AI race is no longer a distant competition — it is an unfolding economic realignment. Bangladesh has the population, the youth, and the momentum. What it lacks is a plan
The global AI race is no longer a distant competition; it is an unfolding economic and geopolitical realignment. Countries like Singapore, South Korea, India, the UAE, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia have embedded AI at the centre of their national development strategies. For Bangladesh, this moment is both a challenge and a rare opportunity. With 180 million people, a young workforce, and a digital economy gaining momentum, Bangladesh has the raw ingredients to leapfrog. What it lacks is a coherent, time-bound, and institutionally anchored AI strategy.
Despite nearly a decade of seminars and speeches on digital transformation, Bangladesh struggles to produce even 1,000 quality AI engineers from a nation of 180 million. The issue is not ambition — it is structural: weak mathematical foundations in schools, under-resourced universities, and a disconnect between industry needs and academic output.
Bangladesh also faces a dual pressure. The RMG sector, its economic backbone, is increasingly vulnerable to Ai-driven automation in global supply chains, while its fast-growing ICT export sector — worth over $2 billion — risks stagnation if it remains confined to low-value outsourcing. A nationally coordinated AI strategy can defend existing jobs through productivity gains, create high-value new employment, and position Bangladesh as a regional AI services hub.
Peer countries offer clear lessons. Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0 commits over S$500 million to research and development, targeting 15,000 AI professionals and embedding AI across healthcare, education, and public services. South Korea passed an AI Basic Act in late 2024 establishing a risk-based governance framework, aiming to rank among
Bangladesh struggles to produce even 1,000 quality AI engineers from a nation of 180 million — the issue is not ambition, it is structural.
the world’s top three AI powers by 2030. India launched the Indiaai Mission in 2024, combining an open GPU marketplace and five National Centres of Excellence for Skills. Vietnam grew its AI startup ecosystem by 450% in three years through aggressive public-private partnerships. The common threads across all these cases: political commitment at the highest level, dedicated funding, industry– academia bridges, talent pipelines starting from school, and pragmatic governance frameworks.
Here is a three-phase strategic roadmap for Bangladesh.
Short term (2026–27): Build the foundation
Bangladesh needs a single, empowered National AI Authority (NAIA) — modelled on Singapore’s Smart Nation office — responsible for coordinating strategy across ministries, setting standards, and managing public investment. It should sit under the Prime Minister’s Office to signal crossgovernment authority, advised by a National AI Advisory Council drawing from telecom, fintech, RMG, agriculture, and academia.
Alongside this, an AI Talent Emergency Programme should partner with top universities to introduce mandatory AI and data science components across all STEM degrees within 18 months. The government should fund 1,000 AI graduate scholarships annually for both domestic programmes and targeted overseas placements in South Korea, Singapore, and the UAE. A national upskilling programme for working IT professionals — modelled on Singapore’s Skillsfuture — should run simultaneously.
Finally, three or four government domains should be selected for immediate AI pilots: crop disease detection for smallholder farmers, tax and customs fraud detection, healthcare triage via chatbot in district hospitals, and disaster early warning systems. These pilots generate visible public value and demonstrate government seriousness to private sector and foreign investors.
Mid term (2028–30): Sector transformation
With foundations in place, focused AI investment should target five strategic sectors. In RMG and manufacturing, Ai-powered quality control and supply chain optimisation — paired with a Bangladesh Smart Factory certification — can serve as a market differentiator as global buyers demand efficiency and ESG proof. In agriculture, mobile-first precision farming advisory can reach Bangladesh’s roughly 40 million smallholder farmers, with Vietnam’s model directly replicable. In fintech, building on bkash and Nagad’s infrastructure to deploy Ai-driven credit scoring for the unbanked can expand financial inclusion significantly. In citizen services, Ai-driven automation across NID, passport, tax, and vehicle registration systems can reduce corruption and processing time. In digital health, Ai-powered screenings at community clinics and Bangla-language virtual triage chatbots can bridge the gap between a shortage of doctors and the growing demand for basic medical guidance.
Computing access is the hidden bottleneck. Just as Singapore operates GPU clusters for its research community and India launched an open GPU marketplace, Bangladesh needs a National AI Compute Cloud accessible to universities and startups at subsidised rates, co-funded with development partners such as the World Bank and ADB.
Long term (2030 onwards): Indigenous capability
As India is building Bhashini for Indian languages, Bangladesh must invest in Bangla-language large language models trained on local data — models that understand Bangladeshi dialects, agricultural terminology, legal language, and cultural context. A consortium model with government seed funding, academia leading research, and industry commercialising is the right structure.
Three to five specialised AI research hubs should be established at leading universities, each focused on a national priority: climate resilience, health, manufacturing, and language AI. And with a cost-competitive, English-proficient, young workforce, Bangladesh can export AI services to global markets — the government should negotiate bilateral AI cooperation agreements with Singapore, South Korea, the UAE, and Japan to open market access and technology transfer channels.
A conservative estimate: a well-executed 10year AI strategy could add $8–12 billion annually to GDP by 2035. Bangladesh’s long-term economic sovereignty depends on moving up this value chain. The new government has a historic window. It should not let it pass.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.