Bangladesh held onto its progress in the ICT sector in the Global Connectivity Index (GCI) 2020 event amid the pandemic.

The country made headway in the field of broadband, internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) compared to last year. So, three more points were added to Bangladesh’s portfolio.

Huawei released the GCI report recently based on the progress of 79 economies in deploying digital infrastructure and capabilities.

According to the GCI 2020 report, Bangladesh advanced eight points in the Global Connectivity Index since 2015.

In GCI 2019 report, the country confirmed its place on the “top movers” with remarkable growth in the digital economy in the last several years.

The GCI 2020 report used 40 indicators under four pillars, namely supply, demand, experience, and potential from 2015 to 2020.

It divided the countries into three groups – frontrunners, adopters and starters.  And Bangladesh belonged to the starter group.

The report showed that starters made significant progress in broadband coverage. Their average mobile broadband penetration went up by more than 2.5 times, 4G subscriptions increased and mobile broadband became 25% more affordable.

These achievements enabled starters to offer better comprehensive digital services and embrace new opportunities in economic development.  Also, their e-commerce expenditure almost doubled since 2014.

A key finding of the GCI 2020 is that the digital transformation of industries will help countries increase productivity, spur economic recovery, and develop future competitiveness.

GCI suggested that economies that could increase productivity and go digital with intelligent connectivity generally enjoy higher gross value added per worker or per hour worked.

It also says full recovery from the pandemic requires two things to happen.

Firstly, it requires recovery from lockdowns and border shutdowns, so that school, work, and global trade can resume via communication and collaboration tools.

Secondly, it requires a return to the same level of economic activity before the pandemic hit.