Business Opportunities in Bangladesh

Bangladesh, a densely-populated country of 155 million people in an area the size of Iowa, has registered steady annual GDP growth of 5-7 percent since 1990 driven by a booming garment industry and rising remittance flows. Thanks to a stable macroeconomic environment and dynamic private sector the IMF estimates that Bangladesh?s GDP in 2013 rose to $141 billion. The IMF projects real GDP growth to increase to 6.25 percent in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 (July 2014 ? June 2015). Led by cotton, aircraft, soybeans, and gas turbines, U. S. exports to Bangladesh reached $712 million in 2013, up from $502 million in 2012. U. S. exports in the first quarter of 2014 reached $545 million. Nearly ten million Bangladeshis, concentrated mainly in Dhaka and Chittagong, have annual incomes well in excess of $10,000, offering a sizable market for a wide range of goods and services. Bangladesh?s garment industry currently produces roughly 80 percent of the country?s exports. Garment exports have expanded steadily since 1990 despite chronic energy shortages, infrastructure constraints, occasional labor unrest and periods of weakening global demand. With a workforce growing by roughly 2 million per year and one of the world?s lowest wage rates, Bangladesh has an opportunity to replicate its success in ready-made garment production by developing other labor-intensive industries. The rapid growth of Bangladesh?s garment industry and increasing investment in energy sector projects have created growing opportunities for U. S. exports of machinery and raw materials. Bangladesh is one of the top 10 remittance earning countries in the world and remittance growth remained buoyant through the world economic downturn, though remittances peaked in the FY 2013 (July 2012-June 2013) at $14.4 billion. Remittances in FY 2014 decreased to $10.4 billion.