The Bangladesh economy has displayed an outstanding performance over the recent years and is on course to emerge as an USD one Trillion economy.
Based on the country’s ambitious business community, fast-growing consumer market driven by a rapidly expanding and optimistic middle-and-affluent class, a burgeoning gig economy with 650k freelancers and digital leapfrogging along with active support from the government, the highly ambitious target will be achieved in coming decades.
A study report titled ‘The Trillion-Dollar Prize - Local Champions Leading the Way’ has recently revealed such information in an event organized at the Westin hotel in Dhaka on Friday. Global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has recently conducted a study on Bangladesh’s economic aspects and how the country has fared well despite the setbacks in the recent years.
The study affirms that Bangladesh has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies beating its major peers like Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Thailand and is on track to become a trillion-dollar economy.
Different factors like solid optimism, early participation in gig economy, rise in consumption, young and growing workforce, high economic resilience, digital momentum, government initiatives and a large well-managed private sector have been instrumental in driving the economic growth of Bangladesh.
The study concludes that the government will have to create favourable environment for the champions (ecosystem stakeholders from corporate) and help them pass to the next level through national programs and development of digital infrastructure.
Despite Covid-19, Bangladesh GDP grew 3.4 percent in 2020 demonstrating the resilience of the economy at a time of significant global economic disruption. The country spun an equally impressive growth story during the Global Financial Crisis, achieving 5.5 percent annual growth rate from 2007 to 2009 against a global average of 0.4 percent.
Despite graduating five years later to Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) status versus India, the GDP per capita is already higher than its regional peer, and Bangladesh aims to become an Upper-Middle-Income Country by 2031. This rapid growth puts Bangladesh in touch of a trillion dollars by 2040 at an average growth rate of 5 percent and earlier if the growth rate continues at the current rate.
More than 50 percent of Emerging Champions in Bangladesh embed societal impact in their company’s vision or mission, alongside business operations. Many of them were founded with the purpose of delivering good to the society, and that has continued to be a major focus even after decades of operation.
For example, BRAC is an international development organization founded in Bangladesh. BRAC reaches over 100 million people in 11 countries in Asia and Africa, powered by the efforts of 100,000 staff members, volunteers, teachers, and community health workers, most of whom are women. BRAC’s pioneering Ultra-Poor Graduation approach has been adopted in over 100 organizations in 50 countries, reaching nearly 14 million people.
Another one is bKash which is the leading mobile financial services player in the world, leveraging mobile technology to enhance financial inclusion for more than 60 million financially-underserved Bangladeshis.
Similarly there are Brac Bank, PHP, ShopUp, Pathao, Walton, Pran, Summit Group, Square, Reneta Limited, Meghna Group, Confidence Group, Beximco Group, and others are emerging Champions that are enjoying a period of significant domestic success, and are now looking beyond those roots to achieve global ambitions.
In their drive to become world-class global businesses able to recruit the best talent, build globally recognized brands, and compete with leading multinational companies, Bangladesh’s Emerging Champions are keen to push themselves to embrace more winning traits to go truly Beyond Great and lead the nation towards becoming a trillion-dollar economy by 2040.
State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak was present as the chief guest at the report revealing programme while Country Head (Corporate Commercial Banking) of HSBC Bangladesh Riaz A Choudhury delivered the keynote speech at the event.
Dr. Hans-Paul Buerkner, Managing Director and Global Chair Emeritus of Boston Consulting Group Zarif Munir, Senior Partner and Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group, Saibal Chakraborty, Partner and Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group, and Tausif Ishtiaque, Partner of Boston Consulting Group were also present at the event along with other high officials.