Bangladesh has been scaling up the inauguration of and investment in economic zones in recent years, and that is indeed the right move. As a part of that venture, it is encouraging to see the government giving its nod to the private sector for an investment of $1.3 billion in the country’s economic zones -- the amount includes a total of 28 investments that would create 36,000 jobs.
Bangladesh has long been reliant on its RMG sector and foreign remittance for the growth of its economy, and recent events in international trade should make the importance of a diverse export basket clear to us.
There is also the matter of all the talented young people in the country who cannot get jobs because we simply don’t have the industries needed to cater to their skills. Of course, we still need to invest heavily into industries such as IT to cater to that untapped talent pool, but this is still a good start.
The fact that we can create thousands of jobs by focusing on our economic zones shows just how much potential there is for our economy to scale up if only we focused on the right places. Given that the advantages of the demographic dividend are in the offing, we need to be prepared.
Of course, the government, along with relevant stakeholders, need to make sure that the invested money is being put to good use and there are no discrepancies in their utility.
For our economy to undergo truly holistic growth, we have to increase our ability to produce economic outputs -- our export zones hold a lot of promise to that end.
To not prioritize them would be nothing short of foolish.
