The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has published a report on the capacity and status of Asia Pacific countries to determine the ability to create digital initiatives in the economy. According to the report, Bangladesh ranks well in terms of physical infrastructure among the eight indicators. Bangladesh scored 32.1 marks in this index. The lowest score was 2.1 on the Culture and Informal Institutions Index.
Bangladesh also lags behind in human capital, which is the complementary culture or the strongest sector of digital initiatives. In this case, the points earned by Bangladesh are 8.5. Among the remaining five indicators, Bangladesh scored 10 points in the formal institutions, regulations and tax index, 7.8 points in the market conditions index, 14.5 points in the knowledge creation and distribution index, 20.1 points in the financing index and 14.6 points in the networking and cooperation index.
The report titled ‘Asia’s Development Outlook’ states that not only Bangladesh, but almost all countries in the Asian region are lagging behind in the ‘Culture and Informal Institutions’ index. This means that the people of this region are negative about initiatives. In other words, people do not look favorably on initiatives regarding the social status and career choices. The same applies to the people of Bangladesh.
In this case, ADB has said to consult on the creation of public opinion or people’s ideas about development initiatives. ADB believes that this can be done through education. Su Chan Hong, the report’s senior expert, suggested creating a supportive environment for digital entrepreneurship through indirect interventions such as creating communication and networking among local entrepreneurs, such as startup associations.
He says the knowledge lag is one of the barriers to digital initiatives in Asia. However, digital entrepreneurs can play a big role in the economic growth of Bangladesh in the coming days. For that, a world-class digital environment has to be created for digital entrepreneurs.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has predicted that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the current fiscal year 2022-23 could be 6.6 percent. This information was reported in the Asian Development Outlook published at ADB’s Dhaka office in Shere Bangla Nagar of the capital on Wednesday (September 21). The report was presented by Sun Chang Hon, Senior Country Specialist of the organization. The press conference was conducted by ADB’s Head of External Relations, Govinda Bar.
