Bangladesh is set to establish its first green data centre near the port city of Chattogram, aimed at attracting foreign investment and offering cost-effective services. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has partnered with the Bangladeshi government to set up the centre, which will be developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model. The project will use renewable energy and be supported by two new subsea cables.
Currently, Bangladesh lacks an established data centre market, with most existing facilities in Dhaka being outdated and unable to modernize. Chattogram’s larger land areas and power resources make it an ideal location for advanced data-centre development. The country’s growing mobile-connectivity network and favourable demographic profile are expected to drive increased demand for data centres.
However, political instability poses a risk to short-term investor confidence. Despite challenges, Bangladesh’s mobile network operators (MNOs) have seen significant growth in mobile data revenues, with mobile data contributing significantly to total sales.
Bangladesh’s fixed broadband connections have been growing, with 13.7 million connections in Q3 2024. The addition of two new subsea cables—SeaMeWe-6 and the Bangladesh Private Cable System—set to be operational by 2026, will enhance the country’s international bandwidth capacity, fostering growth in the data centre sector. Several Asian data-centre firms are already investing in Bangladesh to build new facilities.
