BIDA

Information Technology

Bangladesh IT & ITes industry

Emerging destination for digital skills

Supported by the availability of English-proficient young tech savvy workforce combined with an increasingly reliable communication and power infrastructure, bolstered by strong government support and favorable policies and incentives, the IT sector has been recognized as one of the most promising industry in the country and is forecasted to reach USD 5 billion by 2025.
After the Covid pandemic, the major trend that has accelerated across the world is digitalization. As countries all over the world grappled with lockdowns, digital technologies became the savior. The Bangladesh ITes industry has adapted and progressed rapidly during 2020 with a Harvard Business Review study recognizing it as a break out economy suggesting the potential to rapidly digitalize for both post-Covid economic recovery and longer-term transformation.

Overview

One of the fastest growing sectors in the country, the IT industry in Bangladesh is well represented by software development and IT-enabled service (ITES) including business process outsourcing (BPO) service and ecommerce. While the industry’s revenue is generated largely by software & application development products and services such as AMD, IT help desk, web development, there has been a noticeable increase in products offerings such as big BPO, data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D imaging, virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR), Robotics process automation (RPA) with Ecommerce business soaring since the covid pandemic. Over 4,500 IT /ITES firms are thriving in Bangladesh, employing over 750,000 ICT professionals . Export earnings surpassed USD 1 billion in 2019, registering a CAGR of 21% since 2013. The earnings are further enhanced by a large pool of online workers. In 2017, Bangladesh had a total of 650,000 registered freelancers , the second largest pool of online workers in the world, commanding a market share of 16% after India with 24% of the market. Among them, 500,000 are actively working with aggregate earnings of USD 100 million per annum .

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9th highest mobile phone subscribers in the world

9th highest internet users in the world

29 Hi-Tech parks for IT/ITes Industries.

Highest levels of 4G coverage by population (95%) in South Asia with 5G implementation set to begin in 2021

4th cheapest mobile data among South Asian countries and 18th cheapest mobile data in the world

1400 USD million+
Domestic market size
40%
Growth in domestic market 2010-2018
1000USD million+
Export income in 2019
21%
Growth in Export 2013-2019
22 %
Forecasted growth in domestic market size 2018-2025
4500
IT /ITES firms
750,000+
ICT professionals
650,000+
Registered freelances
300 USD million
BPO market size 2018
71%
Growth in BPO services 2012-2018
2500USD million+
Ecommerce market size 2020
3600USD million+
Estimated Ecommerce market size in 2023
180 USD million+
Wireless phone subscribers September 2021
128 USD million+
Internet users September 2021
61.76 million
Engaged in social network 2021
68 million+
Smart phone users 2020
40.4 million
No. of active mobile financial account

Key Players