The Digital Riser Report 2021 named Bangladesh as the 2nd most digitally competitive nation in South Asia, mainly due to the nation’s comprehensive plans with ambitious targets for digital transformation as well as the focus on entrepreneurship.
The report was released on September 2 by the European Center for Digital Competitiveness at the ESCP Business School, which stated that Sri Lanka was the top Digital Riser in South Asia followed by Bangladesh and Nepal.
The performance of Bangladesh can primarily be explained by the political manifesto of ‘Digital Bangladesh – Vision 2021,’ which targets to promote the nation’s overall development via the use of technology. These steps include four pillars such as digital government, human resource development, IT industry promotion, and connecting citizens.
Access to Information Programme (a2i) was set up by the government as the flagship programme of Digital Bangladesh to generate innovation and bolster the lives of the citizens.
An innovation fund was created by the a2i Programme to empower the entrepreneurs of Bangladesh, with the total amount of $4.5 million awarded.
The report also stated that noteworthy measures to realise Digital Bangladesh include the expansion of digital financial inclusion, the improvements to e-government services and the simplification of bureaucratic processes,
In addition to this, the government has established in excess of 5,000 Digital Centers since 2010 to speed up the digitisation of public services and decrease poverty via citizen-centric innovations.
The target of the government is to improve the investment environment through numerous steps which included the creation of special economic zones and IT parks across the nation.
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