Bangladesh
Bangladesh has maintained impressive growth, with the economy expanding at roughly 6% per year over the last decade. This growth has accompanied large improvements in human development. Since 1992, poverty has dropped by roughly 30%; life expectancy, literacy, and per capita food intake have risen; and more than 15 million people have moved out of poverty. Much of this growth is due to the country’s strength in garments, which account for more than 80% of exports.
Nevertheless, major challenges still face the country. 9 out of 10 workers are in the informal sector and 45 million people still live in poverty. Continued growth depends on diversifying the economy away from garments, and high population density will need to be managed with better infrastructure and urban policies.
Bangladesh has established export processing zones, economic zones, and hi-tech parks that offer various business environment advantages. Private-sector developers can build and manage the zones under concession agreements. Locus Economica has helped Bangladesh develop its public-private partnership framework and strengthen the process for procuring developers and negotiating concession agreements for economic zones and hi-tech parks, as explained below.
The Bangladesh economic zones authority (BEZA) has recently approved 37 new economic zones, bringing the total number of economic zones in Bangladesh up to 97, comprising of 68 governmental and 29 private ones. Between 2011-2021, the economic zones programme facilitated more than US$ 3.9 billion in direct total private investment, and between 1997-2017 contributed US$ 59.4 billion in export earnings. As of June 2020, there were also a total of 675 operating companies in the export processing economic zones (EPZs), employing a total of 461,460 local and 2,214 foreign workers, generating a grand total of US$ 5.29 billion in direct investment since 1997.
One of the biggest recently approved SEZs is Mirsarai economic zone in Chittagong (currently under construction), which is set to be the largest industrial enclave and first multi-sector economic zone in Bangladesh and aims to bring employment to 1.5 million people and generate US$ 15 billion in export earnings within the next 15 years. Additionally, US$ 500 million has been invested into the Private Investment and Digital Entrepreneurship (PRIDE) programme since June 2020, targeting software technology parks (STPs) in Bangladesh, for sustainable and renewable energy infrastructure.
The Bangladeshi government’s objective is to establish 100 SEZs by the year 2025 which it seems on track to fulfil, moving away from export processing zones and towards economic zones more private participation.
Our Experience in Bangladesh
