“The future promise of any nation can be directly measured by the present prospects of its youth.” -- John F Kennedy
The Asian Development Bank estimates there are 1.1 billion young people aged 15 to 29 in the Indo-Pacific, representing 25% of the world’s population and 60% of global youth.
This “demographic sweet spot” highlights the youthful peers of Bangladesh: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, where the young working age population outstrips the old.
Bangladesh's monsoon revolution nudged regional leaders to rethink their purpose: If they cannot create employment and improve youth outcomes, why do they exist?
The lessons learned from Gen Z:
- While talent might be equally distributed, youth opportunity is not
- Shutting down a free and open internet is political suicide
- High inflation demands political change
- Emerging technologies are vital for strengthening free speech, citizen empowerment, and sovereign stability.
Bangladesh’s demographic peers are undergoing massive economic transitions, fueled by the explosion of AI, data analytics, and advanced technologies. AI should add $20 trillion to global GDP by 2030, $1tn to ASEAN alone.
As the economic and social wellbeing of nations are at-risk, regional leaders are aggressive -- with the prime ministers of India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Pakistan -- directly courting the CEOs of the largest global technology companies (GTCs) like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta to host data centres in-country.
National security initiatives creating jobs while empowering robotics, drones, and AI-powered “education co-pilots” built with large language models (LLMs) are examples the geo-economic stakes have never been higher.
Unfortunately, Bangladesh has not (yet) recognized the strategic importance of data centres. They are not merely storage facilities; they play a crucial role in enabling GTC deployment.
Other regional governments recognize that data centres have significant multiplier effects, serving as a cornerstone for developing a skilled workforce in an ever-evolving world. But GTCs only engage with proactive governments having transparent and regionally competitive regulations -- which Bangladesh lacks.
The effort is worth it though. In-country data centres drive economic growth in five ways:
(1) Enabling digital transformation and entrepreneurship
Data centres are central to digital transformation: providing the infrastructure for cloud computing, IoT, AI, and other advanced technologies needed for entrepreneurship, startups, and SMEs.
For example, the Digital India and India Stack initiative have transformed the country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy. With 2.2 GW of capacity, Indian data centres have been pivotal for success, supporting e-governance, digital payments, and smart city projects.
Vietnam was the fastest-growing digital economy in ASEAN last year, with data centres also helpful for Malaysia's Digital Economy Blueprint and Indonesia's Making Indonesia 4.0’s success.
(2) Creating youth employment and upskilling with cloud certifications and training programs
Cloud services powered by data centres allow businesses to experiment with novel ideas, develop innovative products, and scale without the need for significant investment in IT infrastructure.
In Malaysia, Microsoft recently announced $2.2billion of data centre FDI, upskilling 200,000 youth, women, and underrepresented minorities with AI training. Google also announced $2.0bn of data centre FDI creating 26,500 IT and cloud related jobs.
Data sovereignty globally has become a national security priority -- the protection of citizens’ data is paramount for safety
(3) Attracting dollars with foreign direct investment (FDI)
India has received $40bn of data centre FDI over the last 5 years. Last year alone, ASEAN saw $10bn of GTC FDI, with Malaysia becoming the third-largest data centre market in the Indo- Pacific.
GTCs are accelerating regional deployments while boosting local economies with youth employment, upskilling, stronger governance, and emerging technologies.
(4) Strengthening data sovereignty, cybersecurity, and economic resilience
Data sovereignty globally has become a national security priority -- the protection of citizens’ data is paramount for safety. Cybersecurity is as important as border security. Cyberattacks have affected 75% of all nations since 2020, 118 alone in 2024.
Protection against communication breakdowns, phishing, and data loss even during natural disasters, allow data centres to support geographic redundancy and data resiliency. In the Philippines, modelling of complex weather systems, natural hazard models, and simulations for disaster recovery use advanced GTC cloud compute resources.
(5) Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
With less than one-fifth of targets on track, the world is failing to deliver on the promise of the SDGs. Data centres connect GTCs, local enterprises, and domestic SMEs in a new “Digital Village,” bridging the digital divide.
Data centres tackle six SDGs: Clean water (#6), clean energy (#7), decent work and economic growth (#8), innovation (#9), responsible consumption (#12), and climate action (#13).
Today, Bangladeshi data sits in two countries: India and Singapore, with Bangladesh losing $50 million of FX reserves annually to India alone. Ideally, data would reside in-country with all citizens having access to AI/cloud tools as a basic human right.
With 55% of Gen Z worried about unemployment or thinking of moving abroad, GTC deployment helps reverse the overseas brain-drain with fresh domestic tech and tech-adjacent jobs.
The government of Bangladesh (GoB) must seize this future -- where emerging technologies, jobs, and upskilling turn demographic potential to actual dividends. Implementation starts with the bureaucracy.
When competing with India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam, a “whole of government approach” is needed to align various ministries for better regulations, customs, taxes, transit pricing, and ease of doing business with Bangladesh, meeting regional regulatory and commercial standards.
Falling behind in the data centre race is detrimental to Bangladesh’s global reputation. As the AI divide expands, emerging technologies are becoming geoeconomic tools some nations will have and others will not.
The GoB must take active measures to not fall in the latter group. Fostering local deployment with the US. GTCs also strengthen bilateral relations. Providing US groups with successful market access and ensuring a positive experience in-country will enhance Bangladesh’s representation to President Trump and his new administration. Good business is now good foreign policy.
The GoB must urgently enhance Bangladesh 2.0 with emerging technologies to honour Gen Z's historic sacrifice. We need to compete, progress, and secure the best outcomes for Bangladeshi youth.
The nation’s future depends on it.
Tanvir Ghani and Jason Bajaj are Co-Founders of The Osiris Group, a Bangladesh-focused investment firm in Hong Kong and Dhaka.
