Bangladesh Calls for Trust and Global Cooperation on AI Governance
ICT Minister Faqir Mahbub Anam called for trust, institutional capacity, and international cooperation to guide the responsible, inclusive use of AI in government.
In a Nutshell
- ICT Minister Faqir Mahbub Anam called for trust, institutional capacity and international cooperation to guide responsible, inclusive AI use in government.
- He spoke at the opening of the two-day “AI Governance in Practice” conference in Istanbul, held on 6–7 October.
- The event was jointly organised by the Republic of Korea, Turkiye, the Astana Civil Service Hub and UNDP, bringing together officials from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Asia-Pacific.
- Anam said the core challenge is not the speed of AI adoption, but governing and regulating it wisely, responsibly and inclusively.
- He identified public trust, capacity-building and international cooperation as the three foundations of effective AI governance.
- Echoing Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s UN remarks, he warned that the existing digital divide must not become an AI divide and called for technology transfer, skills development and affordable access.
Context
Bangladesh has been developing an AI policy framework for several years. The interim government also released a draft AI policy. Its National AI Policy 2026–2030 remains in draft form and proposes human-centred governance, transparency, public-sector accountability and algorithmic impact assessments for significant or high-risk systems. A UNDP readiness assessment also found that Bangladesh requires stronger data protection, cybersecurity, institutional coordination and multi-stakeholder participation to make AI deployment credible and inclusive.
Why It Matters
The remarks from Istanbul place a necessary constraint on Bangladesh’s recent AI ambitions. Only days earlier, officials in Dhaka presented AI as a tool for technology diplomacy, investment, public service reform, and a future trillion-dollar economy; they also outlined plans to establish sovereign AI infrastructure. But Faqir Mahbub Anam’s focus on trust, capacity and international cooperation highlights the harder question, whether the state can use these systems fairly, securely and effectively.
Bangladesh can gain from foreign partnerships, cloud services, and imported computing hardware, yet it remains exposed if critical infrastructure, data, and technical knowledge remain controlled abroad. The contest is therefore not only to adopt AI quickly, but also to turn outside access into domestic capability while ensuring that automation does not deepen exclusion, weaken privacy, or create opaque public decisions.
What We Think
Bangladesh’s AI ambition will mean little if it replaces human judgment where people’s rights are at stake. AI can assist officials, teachers and doctors, but it cannot be the final arbiter of welfare, healthcare, credit, recruitment or policing. Citizens require a real person who can explain and reverse an automated decision. Bangladesh’s draft AI policy recognises this through human oversight, impact assessments and rights to explanation and review; these safeguards now require enforceable implementation.
Data centres raise another public-interest test. Sovereign computing can give universities, startups and government agencies access to vital AI capacity, but these facilities require reliable power and water supplies. The government has acknowledged both constraints and is considering multiple power sources and on-site generation.
AI runs on data centres, and data centres need large amounts of power and water. If they are built here, in a climate-vulnerable delta with a strained grid, who pays that cost? The government needs an answer, and the public deserves to ask for one.