Country Overview
Bangladesh's AI-governance story is inseparable from an unusually turbulent political period. The long-serving Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina fell in early August 2024 amid a student-led uprising, and an interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge on 8 August 2024. That interim administration governed by ordinance until a general election on 12 February 2026, which the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won; Tarique Rahman was sworn in as Prime Minister on 17 February 2026. Much of the country's most consequential digital and AI-related lawmaking therefore straddles a change of government, and it is important to be careful about which administration produced which instrument — the interim government drafted and gazetted several measures that the elected BNP government has since inherited, amended or is still finalising.
On AI specifically, Bangladesh has a lineage of ambition that has repeatedly outrun implementation. A draft National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence circulated under the previous government around 2019-2020, and the ICT Division published a draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy in 2024; commentators note that little of the earlier roadmap materialised. The interim government advanced a more detailed National AI Policy 2026-2030, whose Draft v2.0 was released for public consultation that closed on 8 February 2026 — a risk-based, four-tier framework that would prohibit real-time public biometric surveillance, social scoring and AI-enabled weapons, mandate algorithmic impact assessments for high-risk systems, create a coordinating National Data Governance and Innovation Agency (NDGIA), and signal an intention to join the Council of Europe's Framework Convention on AI. As of mid-2026 the policy remains a draft, and the incoming BNP government has said it is finalising a broadly similar 'human-centric' national AI policy, so continuity across the transition appears likely but is not yet settled. The proposed NDGIA does not yet exist operationally.
Underpinning this is a digital-government apparatus centred on the ICT Division (within the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology) and its flagship a2i (Aspire to Innovate) programme, historically UNDP-supported and now reportedly being restructured into a more autonomous statutory agency. Bangladesh's economic AI narrative leans heavily on a very large online-freelancer and business-process-outsourcing (BPO) workforce — frequently described as among the world's largest sources of online freelancers — and on 'Digital Bangladesh' and 'Smart Bangladesh 2041' branding, though the latter was a Hasina-era slogan whose status under successive governments should be read cautiously. Compute remains nascent and import-reliant, anchored by a single state-owned Tier-IV national data centre at Kaliakoir; there is no frontier-model developer and only a handful of firms building Bengali-language models. On adjacent law, the interim government gazetted a Personal Data Protection Ordinance in November 2025 (later amended and then passed into a Personal Data Protection Act, 2026) and replaced the controversial Cyber Security Act 2023 with a Cyber Security Ordinance 2025 — reforms welcomed in part but criticised for continuing to shield the state.
At a Glance
Overall AI policy direction
Draft national AI policy inherited across a change of government; first data-protection law now in force
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Major AI companies
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Research institutions
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Live debates
- Latest development
- July 2026
- Regulatory approach
- A risk-based National AI Policy 2026-2030 still in draft, sitting atop a newly enacted Personal Data Protection Act 2026 and a 2025 Cyber Security Ordinance
- Major AI companies
- Hishab Technologies, Intelsense AI, Brain Station 23 +1 more
- Major cloud providers
- BDCCL National Data Centre (G-Cloud), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure +1 more
- Leading research institutions
- Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), University of Dhaka, BRAC University +1 more
- Key ministries
- Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, ICT Division, a2i (Aspire to Innovate) +3 more
- Government involvement
- Moderate — the ICT Division and a2i drive digital-government and AI policy, but a dedicated AI regulator (the proposed NDGIA) does not yet exist and the national AI policy remains a draft
- Industrial strategy
- Leans on a very large IT-freelancer/BPO workforce and 'Digital/Smart Bangladesh' branding, with nascent Bengali-language-model and data-centre ambitions
- International partnerships
- UNESCO AI-readiness assessment and long-running UNDP support for a2i; the draft policy signals an intention to accede to the Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI
- Primary policy focus
- Finalising and implementing the National AI Policy 2026-2030 while operationalising the Personal Data Protection Act 2026
Current Direction
Tightening
Bangladesh appears to be moving from having essentially no dedicated AI or data-governance framework toward one: a first comprehensive data-protection law is now in force, a reformed cyber ordinance has replaced the 2023 Act, and a risk-based national AI policy sits in advanced draft. The direction is therefore toward more formal regulation, but implementation is genuinely uncertain — the coordinating AI agency the policy envisages does not yet exist, the AI policy is unadopted, and the whole agenda has just passed from an interim government to a newly elected one whose priorities are still being set out.
Recent Developments
The incoming BNP government's Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, under minister Fakir Mahbub Anam Swapan, says Bangladesh is finalising a 'human-centric' National AI Policy focused on ethical, safe and inclusive AI use — broadly continuing the risk-based draft inherited from the interim government.
2026-07SourceThe Financial ExpressBangladesh reportedly puts forward four priorities for global AI governance (inclusion, capacity-building, affordable connectivity and digital public goods) at international fora, positioning itself as a Global South voice rather than a model-building power.
2026-06SourceThe Business StandardThe Personal Data Protection Act, 2026 comes into force (reported around 15 April 2026), replacing the 2025 Ordinance to become Bangladesh's first comprehensive data-protection law; commentators welcome the framework but criticise broad state and law-enforcement exemptions and executive-appointed oversight.
Major2026-04-15Following the 12 February 2026 general election won by the BNP, the interim government of Muhammad Yunus hands over to an elected government; Tarique Rahman is sworn in as Prime Minister on 17 February 2026, and Fakir Mahbub Anam Swapan takes over the Posts, Telecommunications and IT portfolio — reshaping the political ownership of Bangladesh's AI and digital agenda.
2026-02-17SourceAl JazeeraThe interim government's ICT Division — whose posts/telecoms/ICT brief was led by Special Assistant Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb — releases the National AI Policy 2026-2030 Draft v2.0 for public review (consultation closing 8 February 2026): a four-tier risk-based framework prohibiting real-time public biometric surveillance, social scoring and AI-enabled weapons, requiring algorithmic impact assessments, and proposing a coordinating National Data Governance and Innovation Agency.
The President promulgates the Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026 (Ordinance No. 23 of 2026), amending the 2025 Ordinance to tighten data-localisation/residency requirements — including keeping a synchronised in-country copy of restricted data and data held by critical information infrastructure.
2026-02-05The interim government gazettes the Personal Data Protection Ordinance, 2025, Bangladesh's first comprehensive personal-data instrument, establishing consent-based data rights while drawing early criticism over exemptions favouring the state.
2025-11-06Bangladesh's IT/BPO outsourcing exports are reported to be approaching US$1bn, buoyed by an AI-services push and one of the world's largest online-freelancer workforces — a central plank of the country's economic AI narrative even as domestic model-building stays thin.
2025-07SourceThe Business Standard
Policy and Regulation
National AI Policy 2026-2030 (Draft)
A risk-based framework advanced by the ICT Division under the interim government (Draft v2.0 released February 2026, public consultation closed 8 February 2026) and reportedly being finalised in similar 'human-centric' form by the elected BNP government. It proposes four risk tiers (prohibited, high-risk, and lower categories), bans on real-time public biometric surveillance, social scoring and AI-enabled weapons, mandatory algorithmic impact assessments for high-risk systems, a coordinating National Data Governance and Innovation Agency (NDGIA), and possible accession to the Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI. As of mid-2026 it remains a draft and the NDGIA does not yet exist operationally.
Official text ↗Personal Data Protection Act, 2026
Bangladesh's first comprehensive data-protection law. It began as the Personal Data Protection Ordinance 2025 (gazetted 6 November 2025 by the interim government), was amended by Ordinance No. 23 of 2026 (5 February 2026) to strengthen data-localisation requirements, and was reported to come into force as an Act around April 2026 under the new Parliament. It sets consent-based data rights and data-residency rules but has been widely criticised for broad exemptions for the state and law-enforcement and for executive control over oversight.
Official text ↗Cyber Security Ordinance, 2025
Promulgated by the interim government in May 2025 (Ordinance No. 25 of 2025), repealing the controversial Cyber Security Act 2023 and striking down around nine speech-related provisions that had been used to prosecute critics. Reform groups welcomed the softer penalties and more bailable offences but warned that surveillance and content-control powers relevant to AI-generated content and platform governance persist.
National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence / National AI Policy 2024 (Draft, superseded)
An earlier lineage of AI policymaking: a draft National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence circulated under the previous government around 2019-2020, followed by a draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy published by the ICT Division in 2024. Neither was formally adopted, and commentary notes that little of the earlier roadmap was implemented; both have effectively been overtaken by the 2026-2030 draft.
Research Ecosystem
Bangladesh's AI research is predominantly academic and NLP-focused. The BUET CSE NLP Group has produced widely used Bengali/multilingual resources (e.g. work on Bangla language models and the XL-Sum multilingual summarisation dataset), while the University of Dhaka and BRAC University run Bangla NLP and data-science research and American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) hosts an AI & Machine Learning group. Commercial capacity is comparatively thin: analysts note that very few firms are training Bengali-specific large language models despite 170m-plus Bengali speakers, with early efforts including Hishab Technologies' 'titulm' models and Intelsense AI's 'Ekush'. The picture is one of strong low-resource-language research talent but limited domestic compute and commercialisation.
Major AI Companies
Hishab Technologies
Dhaka-based voice-AI and Bangla NLP company experimenting with homegrown bilingual large language models (its 'titulm' family) and Bangla writing tools ('Shuddhi', pitched as a 'Grammarly for Bangla'); among the few local firms building Bengali-specific models.
Intelsense AI
Bangladeshi startup that launched 'Ekush', promoted as a model trained specifically on Bangla, with proprietary voice-AI applied across telemedicine, agriculture and other sectors.
Brain Station 23
One of Bangladesh's largest software and IT-services firms (publicly listed), delivering outsourced engineering and increasingly AI/ML-enabled solutions to domestic and international clients.
Pathao
Dhaka-headquartered ride-hailing and 'super-app' platform (also operating in Nepal) that applies machine learning to logistics, pricing and fintech across a large Bangladeshi user base.
Cloud Infrastructure
- Frontier AI
- No domestic frontier developer
- Compute
- Nascent and import-reliant; centred on the state-owned Tier-IV national data centre at Kaliakoir (BDCCL), with little dedicated AI/GPU capacity
- Chip access
- Import-reliant; no domestic advanced-chip fabrication
BDCCL National Data Centre (G-Cloud)
State-owned Tier-IV national data centre at Bangabandhu/Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park operated by Bangladesh Data Center Company Ltd, hosting government 'G-Cloud' services, storage and colocation — the backbone of public-sector digital infrastructure.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Global hyperscaler widely used by Bangladeshi startups and enterprises, served from nearby regions (e.g. Singapore/Mumbai) rather than an in-country region.
Microsoft Azure
Cloud provider used across Bangladeshi enterprise and public-sector workloads, without a dedicated in-country region.
Google Cloud
Cloud provider used by Bangladeshi developers and enterprises, served from regional data centres outside the country.
Leading Universities
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)
The country's leading engineering university; its CSE department hosts a prominent NLP group producing Bangla and multilingual language-model and dataset research.
University of Dhaka
Bangladesh's oldest university, active in Bangla NLP and AI-adjacent computer-science research.
BRAC University
Private Dhaka university with dedicated data-science and machine-learning tracks and Bengali NLP research collaborations; also home to the policy-research institute BIGD.
American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)
Private university hosting an AI & Machine Learning research group within its computer-science department and engaged in AI-governance capacity work.
Think Tanks
Tech Global Institute
Diaspora-founded nonprofit policy lab focused on technology governance in the Global South, which has published research on reforming AI laws and regulation in Bangladesh and engaged in UN-level AI-governance discussions.
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)
BRAC University-based social-science and governance research institute engaged in digital-governance and AI-policy analysis, and convenor of a policy-research consortium.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)
Long-established independent Dhaka think tank (founded 1993) contributing economic and digital-economy policy analysis relevant to Bangladesh's AI and outsourcing agenda.
Government Institutions
Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology
Lead ministry for Bangladesh's digital, telecom and AI policy; under the BNP government its minister (Fakir Mahbub Anam Swapan, from February 2026) oversees finalisation of the national AI policy.
ICT Division
The Information and Communication Technology Division within the ministry; principal drafter of the National AI Policy and the earlier AI strategy, and parent of a2i and the Bangladesh Computer Council.
a2i (Aspire to Innovate)
Flagship digital-government and public-service-innovation programme of the ICT Division, historically UNDP-supported; reportedly being restructured into a more autonomous statutory 'Agency to Innovate' after the 2024 change of government.
Bangladesh Data Center Company Limited (BDCCL)
State-owned company operating the Tier-IV national data centre at Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park, providing G-Cloud, storage and colocation for government and enterprise.
Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC)
Statutory ICT-development body under the ICT Division supporting national digital infrastructure, hi-tech parks and capacity-building.
National Data Governance and Innovation Agency (NDGIA)
Coordinating AI/data-governance body proposed by the draft National AI Policy 2026-2030; as of mid-2026 it is not yet established or operational.
Notable Gaps
Frontier-model developers
No frontier or near-frontier foundation-model developer is based in Bangladesh; domestic effort is limited to a handful of firms (e.g. Hishab, Intelsense AI) and academic groups building Bengali-language models, and analysts note only a very small number of companies produce Bangla LLMs despite 170m-plus speakers.
Dedicated AI regulator/institute
The National Data Governance and Innovation Agency proposed by the draft AI policy does not yet exist operationally, and there is no dedicated AI safety institute; oversight would rest on bodies that are not yet stood up.
Adopted AI-specific law
As of mid-2026 the National AI Policy 2026-2030 remains a draft carried across the change of government, so no binding AI statute or policy is formally in force — governance leans on the new data-protection and cyber-security laws instead.
Compute and hardware
AI compute is nascent and concentrated in a single state-owned national data centre, with dedicated AI/GPU capacity thin and advanced chips fully import-reliant.
Key People
Fakir Mahbub Anam Swapan
GovernmentMinister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology (from February 2026)
Government of Bangladesh (BNP)
Muhammad Yunus
GovernmentChief Adviser of the interim government (August 2024 - February 2026), under whom much of the AI and data-protection drafting occurred
Interim Government of Bangladesh
Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb
GovernmentSpecial Assistant to the Chief Adviser for Posts, Telecommunications and IT in the interim government (2024-Feb 2026); drove AI-in-government and telecom-reform policy
Interim Government of Bangladesh (former)
Shahzeb Mahmood
Think tankSenior researcher working on AI, platform governance and Global South tech policy
Tech Global Institute
Sagor Sarker
IndustryFounder building Bangla voice AI and homegrown Bengali language models
Hishab Technologies
People and Organisations to Follow
Tech Global Institute
Think tankPublishes research and commentary on AI law and platform governance in Bangladesh and the Global South
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)
Think tankDigital-governance and AI-policy research from BRAC University
BUET CSE NLP Group
UniversityLeading Bangla and multilingual NLP/language-model research group
Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb
GovernmentFormer interim-government tech adviser and frequent commentator on Bangladesh's AI, telecom and digital-public-infrastructure policy
The Business Standard (tech desk)
JournalistBangladeshi business daily with sustained coverage of AI, BPO exports and digital policy
Current Debates
GovernmentWhether an ambitious draft AI policy can survive Bangladesh's institutional-capacity and political-transition gap
The National AI Policy 2026-2030 is comparatively sophisticated on paper — risk tiers, prohibited uses, algorithmic impact assessments — but it was drafted under an interim government, remains unadopted, and depends on institutions (notably the NDGIA) that do not yet exist.
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Whether an ambitious draft AI policy can survive Bangladesh's institutional-capacity and political-transition gap
The National AI Policy 2026-2030 is comparatively sophisticated on paper — risk tiers, prohibited uses, algorithmic impact assessments — but it was drafted under an interim government, remains unadopted, and depends on institutions (notably the NDGIA) that do not yet exist.
Analysts point to an 'implementation gap': Bangladesh's earlier 2019-2020 AI strategy included detailed roadmaps that largely did not materialise, and the new policy's coordinating agency lacks a legal mandate or operational existence. The August 2024 change of government also disrupted the digital-government machinery — the ICT Division suspended a number of a2i officials and consultants, and a2i itself is being reorganised into a more autonomous statutory agency, raising questions about continuity of expertise. With the elected BNP government now saying it will finalise its own 'human-centric' AI policy, the open question is whether political ownership across the transition strengthens or dilutes the draft's more binding provisions.
SecurityData-protection and cyber laws that critics argue protect the state more than citizens
Bangladesh has, in quick succession, enacted its first data-protection law and replaced the controversial 2023 Cyber Security Act — but civil-society and industry groups warn that broad state exemptions and surveillance powers persist.
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Data-protection and cyber laws that critics argue protect the state more than citizens
Bangladesh has, in quick succession, enacted its first data-protection law and replaced the controversial 2023 Cyber Security Act — but civil-society and industry groups warn that broad state exemptions and surveillance powers persist.
The Personal Data Protection Ordinance 2025 (later the 2026 Act) was praised for finally codifying data rights, yet critics — including domestic commentators and international bodies — highlight expansive carve-outs for the state and law enforcement, executive control over the oversight authority, and data-localisation rules tightened by a February 2026 amendment that could raise compliance costs and cross-border-data friction. The Cyber Security Ordinance 2025 struck out several speech-criminalising provisions of the 2023 Act, but rights groups argue residual powers still bear on AI-generated content, platform governance and freedom of expression. Together the reforms mark real progress while leaving contested questions about state power unresolved.
IndustryA vast freelancer and BPO workforce exposed to AI automation, with thin domestic Bengali-model capacity
Bangladesh's economic AI story rests on one of the world's largest online-freelancer and BPO workforces, whose IT-services exports are approaching US$1bn — but much of that work is exactly the kind AI could automate, while the country builds few Bengali-language models of its own.
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A vast freelancer and BPO workforce exposed to AI automation, with thin domestic Bengali-model capacity
Bangladesh's economic AI story rests on one of the world's largest online-freelancer and BPO workforces, whose IT-services exports are approaching US$1bn — but much of that work is exactly the kind AI could automate, while the country builds few Bengali-language models of its own.
The freelancer/BPO base is a genuine national asset and a growing export earner, and an 'AI push' is being credited with lifting outsourcing revenues. Yet the same data-entry, transcription, moderation and back-office tasks are increasingly automatable, creating a strategic tension between riding AI demand and being displaced by it. Compounding this, domestic capacity to build sovereign Bengali AI is limited: only a small number of firms train Bangla-specific large language models despite the language's enormous speaker base, and the draft policy's call to prioritise domestically hosted Bangla models sits against thin compute and funding.
InfrastructureReliance on a single national data centre and new data-localisation rules for 'sovereign' AI
Bangladesh's public-sector cloud and 'sovereign AI' ambitions lean heavily on one state-owned Tier-IV national data centre, even as new data-localisation rules push more data to be kept in-country.
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Reliance on a single national data centre and new data-localisation rules for 'sovereign' AI
Bangladesh's public-sector cloud and 'sovereign AI' ambitions lean heavily on one state-owned Tier-IV national data centre, even as new data-localisation rules push more data to be kept in-country.
The BDCCL national data centre at Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park — promoted domestically as among the world's larger Tier-IV facilities — anchors government G-Cloud services and is central to narratives about hosting Bangla-specific AI at home. But concentrating national data and compute in a single facility raises resilience and capacity questions, and the country still lacks meaningful dedicated AI/GPU infrastructure. The 2026 data-localisation amendments requiring in-country copies of restricted and critical-infrastructure data add both a sovereignty rationale and practical strain on this limited footprint, at a time when hyperscale cloud is served from outside Bangladesh.
Knowledge Hub
Official documents
- National AI Policy 2026-2030 (Draft v2.0)— ICT Division, Government of Bangladesh
- Bangladesh Data Center Company Limited (BDCCL) — at a glance— BDCCL
Think tank reports
- Reforming AI Laws and Regulation in Bangladesh: Current Harms and Possible Future(s)— Tech Global Institute
Newsletters
- Bangladesh's AI Moment: Testing the Implementation Gap— Policy Magazine
GitHub projects
- BUET CSE NLP Group— BUET CSE NLP Group
Sources
Deliberately sourced beyond government publications. The bars below show each category’s actual share of this page’s citations — an internal editorial guideline rather than a rigorously derived target, so treat it as a rough steer, not a precise benchmark.
- National AI Policy Bangladesh 2026-2030 (Draft v2.0)GovernmentICT Division, Government of Bangladesh2026-02-09
- Bangladesh's AI Moment: Testing the Implementation GapExpert commentaryPolicy Magazine2026
- National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2024 (Draft)GovernmentICT Division, Government of Bangladesh2024-04
- An Overview of Bangladesh National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2024NewsThe Daily Star2024
- Bangladesh's Personal Data Protection Ordinance 2025: key takeawaysNewsThe Daily Star2025-11
- An Overview of Bangladesh's Personal Data Protection Act, 2026IndustrySecuriti2026
- AI push lifts outsourcing exports near $1b already in first halfNewsThe Business Standard2025-07
- Bangladesh Data Center Company Limited (BDCCL) — at a glanceGovernmentBangladesh Data Center Company Limited2025
- Bangladesh's first cloud data center starts operationsNewsData Center Dynamics2021
- Reforming AI Laws and Regulation in Bangladesh: Current Harms and Possible Future(s)Think tanksTech Global Institute2025
- From aspiration to agency: Bangladesh's a2i programme is here to stayNewsGovInsider2025
- a2i project: 3 companies got majority of work with dominance of 1 personNewsProthom Alo2024
- ICT division working on policy for use of AI in govt offices: Faiz Ahmad TaiyebNewsDhaka Tribune2025
- Bangladesh drafting human-centric AI policy: ICT ministerNewsThe Financial Express2026-07
- Tarique Rahman: From 17-year exile to landslide win in Bangladesh electionNewsAl Jazeera2026-02-14
- Bangladesh proposes four priorities for global AI governanceNewsThe Business Standard2026-06
- Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026 (Ordinance No. 23 of 2026)Think tanksDigital Policy Alert2026-02-05
- Bangladesh faces hurdles in creating its own ChatGPT-level language modelNewsEpium2025
- BUET CSE NLP GroupResearchBangladesh University of Engineering and Technology2026
- Artificial Intelligence 2024 - Bangladesh: Trends and DevelopmentsExpert commentaryChambers and Partners2024
- Cyber Security Ordinance approved with softer penalties, more bailable offencesNewsThe Business Standard2025-05