Business Desk :
Bangladesh slipped 12 notches on the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-commerce Index 2020, the biggest fall among South Asian countries.
It ranked 115th, falling from 103rd position on the 2019 index. It performed better on the 2018 index where it was in 88th position.
India remains by far the most prepared country for e-commerce in South Asia. It moved four notches up from its previous year’s position to rank 71st globally.
Sri Lanka, the second most prepared country in the region, ranked 91st. Its ranking fell four notches from the previous year.
It was followed by Nepal, with the Himalayan country moving down two steps to rank 113rd internationally.
Meanwhile, Bhutan’s ranking on the index moved three notches up to reach 114th.
Despite experiencing the biggest drop in ranking in the region, Bangladesh managed to stay ahead of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Afghanistan and Pakistan – the least and the second-least prepared country for e-commerce respectively – saw their rankings drop by one and two notches respectively.
Unctad, in an index, ranked 152 nations on their readiness to support online business. The index used 2019 data or the latest available and is based on four indicators – access to secure internet servers, reliability of postal services and infrastructure, the portion of population that uses the internet, and the population segment that has an account with a financial institution or a provider of mobile money services.
Using 2019 data, the report said only 13% of Bangladeshis used the internet that year, the lowest among South Asian countries, and 39 out of every one million people had access to secure internet servers.
