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Global technology spending is entering a new acceleration cycle, driven by cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and AI-enabled services. In 2025 alone, global technology spending is projected to reach USD 5.43 Tn, with IT services and software accounting for more than half of total demand. As enterprises increasingly rely on offshore delivery for scale and efficiency, Asia Pacific is emerging as one of the fastest-growing IT/ITES regions globally.
In this context, Bangladesh’s IT/ITES Industry is at an inflection point. While exports have grown rapidly in recent years, the country remains a small player in regional and global IT services trade. Understanding how Bangladesh compares with leading Asian exporters, where structural constraints persist, and which levers matter most for scale has become increasingly critical for policymakers, industry leaders, and investors.
A Small Base, but Accelerating Growth
Bangladesh’s IT/ITES exports reached USD 630 Mn in FY 2025, growing at an estimated ~20% CAGR over the past four years. While this growth rate outpaces several regional peers, the sector remains small in absolute terms, particularly when compared with India’s USD 224 Bn IT services exports or the Philippines’ USD 38 Bn IT-BPM industry.
The export mix is heavily skewed toward IT-enabled services, which account for 86% of total exports. This concentration reflects Bangladesh’s strength in delivery-led services but also exposes structural limitations. These include smaller deal sizes, limited pricing power, and lower resilience as global demand shifts toward software, platforms, and solution-led digital services.
Structural Gaps That Constrain Scale
Bangladesh’s challenge is no longer about entry into global IT markets. It is about scaling. Despite a growing base of over 300K software professionals and more than 4.5K IT and software firms, several binding constraints continue to limit the sector’s ability to move up the value chain.
Bangladesh ranks 89th globally in the Network Readiness Index, trailing key competitors such as Vietnam, India, and the Philippines. While infrastructure has improved, underperformance in talent quality, mid-senior leadership depth, and institutional coordination continues to hold the sector back. Limited direct access to enterprise clients in major export markets also forces many firms to rely on subcontracting rather than owning client relationships.
Lessons from Regional IT Powerhouses
Regional leaders did not scale by chance. India and the Philippines built their global positions through decades of coordinated policy execution, strong industry associations, sustained talent development, and aggressive global market positioning. India’s rise was anchored by large-scale engineering education, export facilitation regimes, and the growth of Global Capability Centres. The Philippines leveraged English proficiency and service culture to dominate global CX and BPO before progressively moving into higher-value IT and shared services.
Bangladesh already has many of the required institutions in place. What remains missing is alignment and execution discipline, particularly around skills development, ecosystem coordination, and international branding.
A Narrow but Strategic Window in the AI Era
The global shift toward AI-enabled IT and digital services presents a time-bound opportunity. AI is rapidly becoming a productivity multiplier in IT services, enabling firms to deliver higher-value work without frontier research or product development. For Bangladesh, this creates a potential leapfrogging pathway into areas such as data operations, cloud support, automation, and AI-enabled service delivery.
However, this window is narrowing. The next two to three years will be critical. Without accelerated investment in talent, stronger firm-level scale, and clearer global positioning, Bangladesh risks being locked into low-value segments even as global demand expands.
The Path to USD 5 Bn+ in IT/ITES Exports
Bangladesh has a credible opportunity to move beyond incremental export growth and build a USD 5 Bn plus IT/ITES sector by 2030. Achieving this scale will depend on a few interlinked shifts. These include strengthening an industry-aligned talent pipeline, enabling firm-level scale through consolidation and partnerships, improving compliance and global market signaling, using domestic digital transformation as a proving ground for export capabilities, and embedding AI across service delivery to raise productivity and value capture.
The sector has already shown momentum. What remains unresolved is execution at scale. Converting growth into sustained global relevance will require tighter coordination across government, industry, and academia, along with disciplined follow-through, before global demand consolidates around a smaller set of competitive digital service hubs.
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