Why invest in Bangladesh

Hello Tareq Alam.

Welcome to Expat.com!

These are useful informations. Thank you.

Aurélie

I am glad you liked it Aurélie! I wish to be regular here, provided people read my posts :-D

Just to give a balanced view on teh subject:

Unstable government.
Corruption
Unstable and insufficient power supply
Bad infrastructure
Strikes are common place
Violence during demonstartion is common place
Dhaka traffic congestion is dreadful.
Extremely dificult to repatriate money to another country
Corruption
Inflation.
Very unstable currency
The ecconomy is reliant on foreign aid, and is even calulated in the budget
Wait for years to get a fixed telephone line
Only GSM service available
Internet speeds are slow or VERY expensive
Did  I mention corruption
Rather than negotiate and talk if your staff do not like their salaries they may smash your factory up
When there are strikes it is unsafe to move from your home
When their are political rallies it is unsafe to move from your home
When leaving the country you cannot take more than 10 USD cash out
House rentals are limited and of poor quality as well as being very expensive
Hotel prices are amongst some of the worst in Asia
Violence ( including DV ) and murder is common place
Poor enviromental laws
Most of the better educated people choose to leave Bangladesh
and did I mention corruption ?

Wow you did some serious research it seems!

What do you gain out of pointing out all these negative things, If I may ask?

A balanced realistic viewpoint.
You think that any of the points I made are incorrect please lets discuss.

There are many other countries which offer greater incentives than Bangladesh.


The recennt spate of violence and destruction of RMG factories will have companies once again looking to relocate to other countries.

Inflation is rampant

Corruption well just look at the decision from the WB on Padma bridge

Electricity blackouts are common place

just look at the state of the roads and annual death toll there on

Your viewpoint is to make it look attractive, what do you gain in pointing out all those positives?

What a twisted-negative mentality you have!

No dear, no need to discuss anything, you have got most of the points correct but some are just bunch of naive accusations. Yes there are many countries offering better facilities and incentive, but does that take what Bangladesh has to offer?

May the creator bless you and give you some perspective in life to lead a happy road rather than the ability to point out miles of negatives. Amin.

May the creator bless you and give you some perspective in life to open your eyes and be able to speak with a blanced viewpoint rather than living in some delusional state that Bangladesh is a great place to invest in and that there are very few people that want either Bangladesh citizenship  or permanent residency. Please do tell me the offical figures on the number of people who have taken this offer in the last 10 years, and then tell me the offical number of people who have emmigrated during the same period of time

Do prey tell which are naive accusations

I open the eyes to live happy with what the surrounding has to offer; not to see ONLY the negatives.

Hey how come you write about permanent residency and people wanting duel citizenship when you have chosen not to live in your country? Man, some double standard that is!

Not double standard at all I am on a temporary assignment at the bequest of my company.

You have the audacity to state that also when you are living in Australia, it is you who has the double standard.
Why are you not promoting Australia as a place to invest, the amounts required are quite similar if you are not aware.

I am here to earn as much money as possible, purely and simply that. I get extra pay in fact as Bangladesh is regarded as one of the least desirable places to be posted in the world.

That is because I have patriotism that you don't :-D

Bangladesh has given you a chance to earn some more cash, but still all you can think of is negative points. Talking about a blind eyed person!

You still have not answered any of my questions, are you afraid of the answers?

I can think of many positive points, but as you gave only positive, I chose to balance out your single minded blindness.

Let me state a few that affect me.
Cheap labour,
well qulaified cheap engineers ( until they chose to leave the country )
Outside of Dhaka great countryside with clean air, great for cycling which is cheap
Cheap golf
I can have a maid and driver ( they are not that brilliant but they are cheap )
I am tempted to say cheap local produce, but in reality it is not, it is expensive, so forget that one.
Now I am trying to think of some positives within business but the only thing I can come up with is cheap labour, well there we have it

Hello to both.

Could you please calm down?

Thank you,
Aurélie

Hahaha, again double standard; have you answered any of my questions?

I am glad the cheap things brought a cheap person like you to the country while the good one are settled in Australia Hahaha.

Most people tent to shift to a better place and you chose to come here instead; it tells a lot about your ancestors and upbringing

Hahaha

Hey, Aurélie, I apologies. I had to show him his standard you see. To respect your call, this is my last response in this tread. I will concentrate on writing another article on 'Positive Bangladesh' tonight.

Several points of yours are invalid.

•For the last 42 years of independence, Bangladesh has not occurrence of negative growth.

----> with riots occurring almost atleast once a month, and the most recent being for 3 days after opposition mp went missing.

•In terms of intensity and frequency of natural disasters, Bangladesh has lesser occurrences compared to Japan, Philippines, and other countries in Asia and even in America. This is because the country is located outside the zones of major earthquakes.

------> not particularly true. recently several earthquakes were felt in Chittagong and Dhaka. cyclones and floods ravage the country on a yearly basis.

In the recent years, Bangladesh had carried out a major arrangement of liberalization, deregulation, and reforms in policies related to every economy sector that includes financial reforms. The reforms and liberalizations aim for the economic global changes of the country, which will facilitate through introduction of productive efficiency and international competitiveness.

----> Bangladesh still ranks one of the top in corruption.

Apart from above-mentioned facts, Bangladesh has the following positive aspects that will make it a desirable location for foreign investors:

•Cost of living is reasonable and low, and has no ethnic or communal issues

------> not true. cost of living is sky high compared to many other countries i have visited.

•English is widely understood and spoken

-------->completely bullshit. I find that India has a higher rate of spoken English.

•Term and working capital loans from local commercial banks are permitted to foreign capital industries

-----> foreign investors are not allowed to transfer money out of the country, which is why McDonalds does not have any branches in Bangladesh.

•Citizenship is granted to any foreigner with minimum investment of US$500,000 or by transferring an amount of US$1,000,000 to any authorized financial institutions in the country

-----> basically you buy your citizenship for 1 million by bribing people.

I would also like to point out that inorder for a country to develop, it needs the basics: clean water, electricity, roads, rails.
Bangladesh is still yet to build proper roads linking cities, ensure uninterrupted power supply and provide clean safe drinking water to all its people. I was shocked to find that even in the most posh areas of dhaka, power cuts still do happen.

You are right CaptainBanana. Thanks for your valuable output...

Well said CaptainBanana, very true.
Tareq Alam, it is good to be patriotic but be realistic

why should we invest in bangladash.... n why not in malaysia

edddy, nobody said you can NOT invest in malaysia
By the way, you need to give reasons why Malaysia.

coz malaysia is now supper growing econ and i m also in malaysia thts why

n one more thing... malaysia is really safe and its usually called GATEWAY TO EUROPE AND AUSTRALIA... u can do business from here to cover australia , canada , america... as i told u above is GATEWAY TO EUROPE ... and other nations...
and one more thing wht malaysia is now before 15 years it was not the same like now... so alot of investors r comming to malaysia from dubai and uk ...

"and i m also in malaysia thts why" ....thats a very good reason i must say

lolzzz sorry hope u dont mind ...well actually most of the big investors frm pakistan and dubai (paki investors ) r comming to malaysia... thts why . i thnk malaysia is best for big opportunities... wht u think... did u stdy any thing about malaysia...
m basically from pak and doing a small business ... and doing visa and business consultancy in malaysia for pakistani and dubai clients...

hai arunthia ... r u thinking i am discouraging investors to go bangladash...???
if u thinking like tht... then???????????????
ok fine think like tht wht can i say ... lolllllllll
hai plz dont mind ok . i am not doing tht... ok wait
hai guys go bangladash and invest there... plz plz dnt listen to me... plz dont ... i m lying about malaysia ...
now hope u forgive me... plz plz plz

I have been to Malaysia, for travel only. Not interested in working or investing there, nice country though. Thanks.

edddy, take a chill pill and sleep. Good night.

opsssss u got angry....
any wayz good nigt...

Hi guys! So much anger in this thread I'm of Bengali-ethnicity but I was born & raised in USA. IMHO, Bangladesh is a semi-solid investment place at the moment.

I know people who live in Bangladesh think corruption is getting worse but according to Transparency Index & Corruption Perception Index (Belgian), Bangladesh has improved from a rating of 1.2 to 2.7 in the span of ~10yrs. It was also ranked the most corrupt country in the world ~10yrs ago & now it's improved to 120th. That gives me reason to believe things are getting better.

Also, the GDP growth-rate has held between 5-6% for the last decade. That's not China or India (or Sri Lanka or Qatar) but atleast it's held up ok. Also, the government seems to be investing heavily in infrastructure & energy. It also has a growing middle-class & people living under the poverty line has been reduced from 45% to 31.5% in ~10 yrs.

I do believe patriotism is important in Bangladesh. I love being American but I love being Bengali too & I want to see Bangladesh succeed. Samsung & LG started in South Korea when it was a poor, very corrupt country & now Korea is an OECD member.

It takes a weak person to expect perfection from a country like Bangladesh & then become angry when they don't get it. It takes a much smarter person to see potential. So let's find a good way to invest in the Bangladesh economy & get rich doing it

I take Bangladesh over Malaysia any time, of course I do, I am Turkish... 

I would like to live there for a few years but I am concerned mostly about the treatment of the women!

And, $75,000 investment requirement for retirement-visa is very high.

kim & mika wrote:

Just to give a balanced view on teh subject:

Unstable government.
Corruption
Unstable and insufficient power supply
Bad infrastructure
Strikes are common place
Violence during demonstartion is common place
Dhaka traffic congestion is dreadful.
Extremely dificult to repatriate money to another country
Corruption
Inflation.
Very unstable currency
The ecconomy is reliant on foreign aid, and is even calulated in the budget
Wait for years to get a fixed telephone line
Only GSM service available
Internet speeds are slow or VERY expensive
Did  I mention corruption
Rather than negotiate and talk if your staff do not like their salaries they may smash your factory up
When there are strikes it is unsafe to move from your home
When their are political rallies it is unsafe to move from your home
When leaving the country you cannot take more than 10 USD cash out
House rentals are limited and of poor quality as well as being very expensive
Hotel prices are amongst some of the worst in Asia
Violence ( including DV ) and murder is common place
Poor enviromental laws
Most of the better educated people choose to leave Bangladesh
and did I mention corruption ?

Wow, I heard a complaint about this topic all the way here in Brazil.

The only thing that I can say is to Kim & Mika that I feel that you are being excessively negative. There is no developing country that is free from the problems you point out, and really seem to dwell on. I guess that's the Brit coming through. You really seem to have a bad case of the "over home" syndrome. As I seem to recall from some of the comments I hear from Brits coming here to Brazil the UK isn't all that wonderful either, inflation, high unemployment, terrorism, chavs, discrimination and violence. Doesn't sound like heaven on earth to me.

What you mention sounds like you could be describing Brazil. We have all those problems too... in spades. That doesn't stop Brazil from jumping into 5th place as far as being a world economy and nudging out Great Brittain. Investment here is booming just as it will in Bangladesh.

Looks like (my guess) you're an expat living and working in Bangladesh and you are now locked in the phase of Culture Shock where EVERYTHING about your host country is bad. Don't worry, you'll get over it eventually. I've been living in Brazil for over ten years now and there is no place on earth that I'd rather be. There was a brief period in the beginning when I could not say that.

I'm with Tareq on this one....... I bet Bangladesh is a good place to invest.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog

WTF.
I have travelled and worked in KSA,Sweden, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Iran, Malaysia ( great place to invest by the way ) Finland, Japan, Taiwan, indonesia,Germany  India to name but a few.
I can tell you Iran, Vietnam, India, KSA, Thailand, Indonesia are all much safer investments than Bangladesh.
Oh and by the way Dhaka ranks 140 out of 140 as the worst city in the world to live, this is not Rio, I can tell you.

Dear members,

Could we just calm down and get back to the topic please?

Peace!
Armand

These are just opinions, what I stated are facts, let me give you another:
the WEF ( that is World Ecconomic  Forum to save you looking it up )Global Competive Index recent report ranked Bangladesh at 118th a drop of 10 places since last year.
119th in basic requirements
127th Institutions
134th Infrastructure
100th Macro ecconomic environment
103rd Health and primary education
122nd Innovation and sophistication
107th Crime and violence


Most prolematic issues of doing business here in order :
Inadequate Infrastucture
Corruption
access to finance
Bureaucracy
inflation
Policy
Government instability
Currency regulations
Tax
Tax regulations
Crime
Work ethic
Inability to innovate
restrictive labour regulations
Poor public Health
Inadequate educated  workforce

Well there you have it that is the WEF a reputable body indeed and not the opinion of a cartoonist from Brazil who has never been here.

Oh and by the way UK scored 8th in the world

Investors will go to moon if require.Investors not decide who says what but need profit.Agree corruption is there but not by the poor farmers or workers.Good zero corruption country can't confirm always people rights and equality anywhere.Rich country take money from your pocket not by bribes but thru smart card! or credit card!
Corruption is irritating and this chance take Bangladeshi and sometime foreigners also (like school pass people show Bangladesh gov expats many times as problem can solve by money!)

* You have lived in many countries, and therefore I acknowledge your expertise

* In regard to Dhaka you write that it ranked 140 out of 140 - however I think such surveys are strongly biased.

Let me tell you that people in Bangladesh, and the surrounding countries such as India, are known to have extremely friendly populations. Whether or not Dhaka is safe, I would like to add that the people must be much more smiling and helpful in Dhaka than if they were living in cities such as Liverpool or Manchester

kim & mika wrote:

WTF.
I have travelled and worked in KSA,Sweden, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Iran, Malaysia ( great place to invest by the way ) Finland, Japan, Taiwan, indonesia,Germany  India to name but a few.
I can tell you Iran, Vietnam, India, KSA, Thailand, Indonesia are all much safer investments than Bangladesh.
Oh and by the way Dhaka ranks 140 out of 140 as the worst city in the world to live, this is not Rio, I can tell you.

To new_in_norway.... Well said. The general population in Bangladesh are probably a lot friendlier and less cold and remote than the average Brit.

To kim&mika.... You're right Dhaka ISN'T Rio, and you can count yourself very lucky on that score. Hell man, you want to talk about unsafe. Over one thousand innocent people are killed every year by stray bullets in the ongoing war between the police and drug traffickers in the favelas of Rio. Crumbling infrastructure, well we've got sewer,gas and electricity all going through the same antiquated underground system. Any child can tell you that the three don't mix. We have explosions caused by gas filled sewers where the cracked insulation on the power lines gets wet and sparks, blowing the manhole covers into the air which then drop like bombs on people in the streets. Carjackings and armed robberies happen every night at traffic signals everywhere in the city. Maybe you should spend some time in any major Brazilian city, you'd change your tune about Dhaka I'm sure. Rather than whining and complaining about everything you say is so terrible about Bangladesh why don't you try and do something to help make it better? Like the old saying goes "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."

If you don't mind the question.... Why are you there in the first place? Are you working there? making money there? Investing there? If the answer to any of those was YES, is there somebody holding a gun to your head forcing you to stay there? If the answer to that question is NO (which it obviously is), then you're there by your own choice and have to be making money there or you wouldn't stay. The local wine must be horrible with all those sour grapes!

Oh, and by the way..... I'm not a cartoonist. Animator is my title as a local member of the Expat-blog Team. Animators are essentially forum moderators, we 'animate' the members in our forum, keep things lively. (The other definition of ANIMATE)

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

Thanks for agreeing WJwoodward

I too agree with you when you say e.g India, Thailand are better to invest in allthough I do hope that Bangladesh will also get investment.

Amazingly, the Bengal was the richest part of our globe around 1700 - back then it was an important player in trade. It was in that region that the East India Company was initially concentrated if I am not wrong and Calcutta was the old capital of British India, but eventually the other coast became more important and Mumbai overtook Calcutta in importance I supose...

But Calcutta continued to be important for the Indian nationalism movement, poetry and art - Bengal was divided between 1905 and 1911 but then again it became divided into West Bengal and East Bengal...

kim&mika,

By the way, not EVERYONE is convinced that the WEF is a credible organization or that its reports are in any stretch of the imaginaition unbiased. For the most part it is an organization dominated by fat-cats in the business world with their own personal agendas. Many also believe and have stated publicly that their reports are not only extremely biased but largely self serving.

The following is a direct quote from Wikipedia giving a criticism of the organization...

"The annual meeting has also been decried as a "mix of pomp and platitude", and criticized for moving away from serious economics and accomplishing little of substance, particularly with the increasing involvement of NGOs that have little or no expertise in economics. Instead of a discussion on the world economy with knowledgeable experts alongside key business and political players, the annual meeting now features the top media political causes of the day, such as global climate change and AIDS in Africa."

So you can see that I'm not the only one who holds the opinion that the organization is just another arm of the 'old boy's club' engaging in their annual session of public backpatting. I agree with the quoted criticsm... they really accomplish little of substance. I personally wouldn't trust them to advise me what to buy for lunch, much less what to invest in or where.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

kim & mika wrote:

what I stated are facts, let me give you another:
the WEF ( that is World Ecconomic  Forum to save you looking it up )Global Competive Index recent report ranked Bangladesh.....

and 


Oh and by the way UK scored 8th in the world

Sorry, kim&mika just because WEF said it, doesn't make them FACTS, they are still opinions too. Get that straight in you head. They're extremely biased opinions at that!

If the UK is so great, scored so high.... then I stongly suggest you stop your whining and get your tail back there ASAP. Bangladesh will be far better off without your continued presence I'm sure. You're damn lucky you aren't here in Brazil, your public comments here would land your ass in jail real quickly for violations of the "Estatuto de Estrangeiro". Just one more example of how very wrong you really are about it being so much worse there. At least you have the freedom to say what's wrong even if you're misinformed and narrow minded.

My best advice to you is either "man-up" or move out, but do it soon.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team