Bangladesh struggles to find its feet in global innovation race

Bangladesh has ranked 106th out of 139 economies in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025, showing the country still has a long way to go in becoming more innovation-driven, despite progress in digital development and technology.

With a score of 21.0, Bangladesh placed eighth in Central and Southern Asia and 19th among lower-middle-income countries. The ranking highlights both the country’s potential and the challenges it faces in research, innovation and technology.

Published every year by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Global Innovation Index measures how countries perform in innovation. In simple terms, it looks at how well countries support new ideas and turn those ideas into real products, businesses and technologies. The ranking is based on nearly 80 indicators under seven areas, including education and research, infrastructure, business environment, investment, technology output and creative industries.

“Bangladesh is accelerating its innovation landscape, ranking around 95th-105th in the Global Innovation Index. Key advancements include the Sono arsenic filter, eco-friendly Sonali Bag, pioneering microfinance models, and growing digital social innovation. The country focuses on sustainable development in agriculture, RMG, and technology, with innovation outputs outpacing investments,” WIPO said in a report.

These factors are used to give each country a score out of 100. Switzerland, which ranked first for the 15th year in a row, scored 66.0, followed by Sweden 62.6 and the United States 61.7 while China entered the global top 10 for the first time.

“Bangladesh’s total investment in research and development stood at 0.03 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022-23, against Vietnam’s 0.54 percent, India’s 0.70 percent and China’s 2.55 percent. Our budget allocation for science and technology is also miniscule and we must have the courage to follow the roadmap to fix it,” Dr Sabbir Ahmad, a researcher and expert in project delivery and engineering, wrote in an article recently.

Bangladesh, he says, “Must prioritise research and development spending. Both public allocation and tax frameworks should be channelled for research funding. Second, the government must reconstruct the education sector from the ground up. When a considerable number of tertiary degree holders remain unemployed, it shows a gross mismatch between classroom output and market demand.
“Third, we must make sure innovation transcends geographic restrictions. Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem remains overwhelmingly concentrated in Dhaka. Regional hubs in Chattogram, Sylhet, Rajshahi, and Khulna with infrastructure guarantees and targeted incentives would distribute both risk and opportunity.”

He says, like India, Bangladesh must attract GCC investments. “India built its GCC advantage over two decades. Bangladesh has a window of cost base, young workforce, expanding digital infrastructure to position ourselves as South Asia’s next GCC hub,” he says.

“We should make staying home competitive. Freelancers working for foreign clients and diaspora professionals in global tech hubs are responding to better opportunities. To close the gap, we need equity culture in startups, stock option frameworks, competitive compensation, and IP protection strong enough that building something here feels worth the risk.”

In South Asia, India ranked 38th, far ahead of its neighbours and remained the region’s top innovation performer. Sri Lanka ranked 93rd, Pakistan 99th, Bangladesh 106th, and Nepal 107th. Bangladesh has also slipped slightly over the past few years, ranking around 102nd in 2023, 105th in 2024, and now 106th in 2025.

This comparison is particularly striking given that at the Bangladesh Start-up Summit, the government set a target of creating 50 unicorn start-ups by 2041, while Ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister and one of the longest-serving female heads of government globally) had said “Our young generation will be the key force in building Smart Bangladesh.”

Under her dynamic leadership, the country was embracing the ‘Smart Bangladesh’ vision, emphasising digital social innovation to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Bangladesh once pioneered microcredit and microfinance championed by Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank – both winning the Nobel Prize for Peach in 2006, impacting global poverty reduction strategies.

Prof Muhammad Yunus, who had later became the Chief Adviser of the Interim Government of Bangladesh, had similarly stressed that youth need entrepreneurial and technical skills for the AI era. “Innovation needs not only ideas, but capital to scale.”

This reality is evident in Bangladesh’s growing start-up ecosystem, where firms like bKash, Pathao and ShopUp have emerged as success stories but still depend on sustained investment and policy support to grow into global competitors.

The report also shows innovation is growing globally. According to WIPO’s 2025 report based on 2024 data, the world saw a record 3.7 million patent applications filed in 2024, up 4.9 percent from the year before. Patents are legal protections for new inventions and are often seen as a sign of innovative activity. Growth in patent filings was driven by areas such as artificial intelligence, digital technology, green energy and advanced manufacturing.

Bangladesh’s low innovation ranking compared to its regional peers highlights the urgent need to strengthen research, patents, and investment support. Turning its strong pool of ideas and youth potential into scalable, well-funded enterprises will be key to competing in the global innovation race.