Bangladeshis spend more than $5 billion annually on medical treatment abroad, with India and Thailand being the primary destinations due to their more advanced healthcare systems, according to Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur.

Mansur made these remarks at a workshop titled "Cross-Border Data Flow: A Bangladesh Perspective," jointly organised by the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh and the World Bank. The event took place at the Amari Dhaka in the capital.

The governor highlighted that a significant portion of this expenditure occurs unofficially, placing considerable pressure on the country's balance of payments.

To address this issue, he called for establishing a legal framework for data processing, which would enable efficient sharing of data locally and across borders.