The Bangladesh government on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to develop the country's first green data centre.

The project will be implemented through a public-private partnership (PPP) model and will use renewable energy.

AKM Abul Kalam Azad, Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) director general for finance and administration; Md Anwar Hossain, BTCL managing director; Abul Khair Mohammad Salehuddun, Posts and Telecommunications Division additional secretary; and Hoe Yun Jeong, ADB country director, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisations at a ceremony at PPPA office in Dhaka.

Md Mushfiqur Rahman, secretary at Posts and Telecommunication Division; Muhammad Rafiqul Islam, PPPA chief executive officer; and Takeo Konishi, ADB Director General for South Asia, were also present at the signing ceremony.

The state-of-the-art data center will be located on a Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL)-owned site near Chattogram. It will offer commercial colocation services to both public and private sector enterprises while meeting BTCL's internal data storage needs. Designed with international standards, the center will ensure high availability and scalability to meet future demands.

ADB's support will include advisory services, focusing on feasibility studies, project structuring, and fostering private investment in the IT sector. The project is expected to play a key role in Bangladesh's digital transformation and boost private sector involvement in this area.