The government has taken impressive strides in transforming the country to adopt digitalisation but proper policy and a level playing field across the industry are required for further growth, said experts yesterday. 

With government direction and proper regulation, there was immense progress in terms of digital financial inclusion, said Kamal Quadir, chief executive officer, bKash.

But now to meet the government's future ambitions of economic growth, Bangladesh needs different kinds of preparations and has to formulate regulations that can protect consumer interest, he said.

"We need to make sure there is a level playing field across the industry, we have to make sure we have all the ingredients to attract foreign invest investment," he said.

Quadir was addressing a panel discussion titled "Harnessing the Power of Digital Economy to Unlock New Frontiers in Smart Bangladesh" at Bangladesh Business Summit 2023 in Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.

The three-day event is being organised by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) in partnership with the government to showcase the country's progress and potential to both global and local investors.

"If you look at that very fundamentally it's a flat country, dense population. And with government support with good policies give the birth of mobile phone infrastructure," said Quadir.

"Subsequently, on top of that infrastructure, we built another level of service—mobile financial service (MFS)," he said.

"When you have ecology like that, with 100 million unique mobile phone users, and good regulations that protect customers fund, there is no reason MFS-like service shouldn't be there," he said.

With this, common people are participating in economic growth, a rickshaw-puller now can participate in the digital economy, he added.

"After 12 years of hard work, we (bKash) demonstrated that foreign direct investment from some of the best investments can be attracted to Bangladesh," he added.

Bangladesh now needs a policy framework which will not only make it easy for digital business but also enable sustainability, said Bjarke Mikkelsen, group CEO of Daraz Group.

Because capital and investors will be coming in from all over the world and Bangladesh will be on the forefront, he said.

"So, we need to remember that we are investing for a long term and we also need support for good sustainable business," he said.

Identifying the right skillsets, target market and proper strategy will help Bangladesh to boost annual IT exports to $20 billion, said Russell T Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services.

"If you can do these few things right, $20 billion export by 2031 is very much possible," he said.

He urged non-resident Bangladeshis and local conglomerates to invest in Bangladesh's ICT sector as it has a lot of potential to surpass garment's export earnings by 2041.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, Md Shamsul Arefin, secretary to ICT Division, Vivek Sood, joint acting group chief executive officer of Axiata Group, and Jørgen C Arentz Rostrup, head of Telenor Asia, also spoke.

Syed Mohammad Kamal, country manager, Mastercard, moderated the event.