A report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reveals, although Bangladesh ranks well in terms of physical infrastructure, it has weak digital environment for entrepreneurs, ranking 96th among 113 economies in ADB’s Global Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems.
The index is prepared by looking at the level of digitalisation in eight areas.
With a score of 32.1, Bangladesh performed best in the physical infrastructure while performed worst on the culture and informal institutions with a score of only 2.1. The ADB revealed the ranking in its September update report of the Asian Development Outlook 2022.
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 report states.
To overcome this barrier, Su Chan, senior expert, suggests creating a supportive environment for digital entrepreneurship through indirect interventions, such as, building communication and networking among local entrepreneurs. Knowledge lag is one of the hindrances to digital initiatives.
However, digital entrepreneurs can play a big role in the economic growth of Bangladesh in the coming days. For this to happen, there needs to be a supportive environment enabled by conducive policies and incentives.
