Bangladesh among top four in digital economic growth: Huawei
Bangladesh has boosted its GCI score by seven points in less than five years
Bangladesh made it onto the "Top Movers" list of Huawei's Global Connectivity Index (GCI) 2019 report. This comes following the improvement and remarkable growth in digital economy in the last four years, says a press release.
"Top Movers" lists top four quickest countries to adopt digital technology for transforming their economies. The other three countries in the list are Ukraine, South Africa and Algeria.
In less than five years Bangladesh, which is a Starter nation, has boosted its GCI score by seven points. Mobile subscription penetration has jumped from 5% to 41% since 2015, and smartphone penetration from 7% to 34%.
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In addition to mobile subscription, Bangladesh's fiber to home (FTTH) coverage and fixed broadband base also made significant progress.
The 79 countries assessed by GCI 2019 account for 95 percent of global GDP and 84 percent of the world's population.
Huawei publishes the annual GCI report after researching on how innovations in information technology and their applications can grow national economies, in cooperation with top universities, think tanks, and industry associations.
The goal of the report is to provide countries and industries with authoritative, objective, quantified assessments and recommendations on digital transformation.
Huawei has been releasing the GCI report since 2014 based on 40 indicators subsumed under four pillars namely supply, demand, experience and potential.
Intelligent connectivity is another potential catalyst for fresh GDP growth for all the countries including Bangladesh, the report said.
It is not just developed economies that can benefit from intelligent connectivity. GCI 2019 finds that nations at every level of digital development can access the upside potential of artificial intelligence (AI) as a GDP booster when it is deployed by industries and organizations.
Even for Frontrunners like Japan and the US that have leading ICT infrastructure, the potential of AI has only just begun to be tapped. Adopters and Starters like China, Malaysia, India, the Philippines, and Spain are also deploying AI technologies as fast as they can.
A key finding of Huawei's GCI 2019 is that countries with GCI scores over 65, that have made continuous investment in intelligent connectivity, can expect the technology to boost their GDP by more than 1%. At the same time, success in the era of intelligence depends on the ability to collaborate on a global scale.
GCI 2019 highlighted AI's role as one of four key enablers that drive intelligent connectivity, alongside broadband, cloud, and internet of things (IoT). All four have the potential to be significant catalysts for economic growth.
"We are now seeing that the fusion of 5G, AI, and cloud has redefined connectivity," said Kevin Zhang, chief marketing officer of Huawei ICT Infrastructure.
"Intelligent connectivity is speeding up the development of the digital economy, so governments and industry leaders in Starter and Adopter nations should embrace new technologies and benefit from global collaboration," Kevin asserted.
"Meanwhile, we have realised that intelligent connectivity may be the answer to many of the societies' most complicated and deeply rooted challenges, including climate change and the wealth gap between rich and poor," Kevin further added.
