ICT Export in South Asia: a cross-country forecasting approach

The aim of current study is to depict the forecasting trend of information and communication technology (ICT) service exports for the eight South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). The latest available secondary data on ICT service exports for those South Asian countries from World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank dataset for the period of 2008 to 2017 were used for this study. For identifying trend pattern, the least-square trend equation on deseasonalised data of ICT service exports has been used. In the least square trend equation, the independent variable is time and the dependent variable is deseasonalised data. Time series regression model has been initiated to forecast future values based on earlier mentioned values in the dataset. Findings of the study indicate that six countries (Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) have an upward trend of ICT service exports for the period 2018 to 2025, and two countries (Afghanistan and Bhutan) have a downward trend of ICT service exports for the same time interval.