Bangladesh as an investment destination - High Risk, High Profit

After 40 years of independence, Bangladesh is still facing some major problems which are creating a hindrance for the economic growth of the nation. Electricity crisis, poor transportation infrastructure, corruption, unpredictable price hike and poor maintenance of the industries are few of the problems. Among these power crisis, poor transportation system and corruption are the most major problems.

Most power plants in Bangladesh use natural gas as the raw material to produce electricity. Due to the recent shortage of gas electricity production is facing problems as well. Every summer, frequent occurrence of load shedding stops the production in various industries and other business sectors. Our world is a technology based world and a constant electric supply is like its backbone. Without constant electrical supply, a country cannot grow economically. The government is taking various initiatives to solve the electricity problems in the country. They hired some foreign companies to establish quick-rental power plants and they are also making a deal with the Russians to establish a nuclear power plant.

The industrial sector of every country needs a perfect transportation infrastructure. Unfortunately the transport system of Bangladesh can still be referred as ‘medieval’. Traffic jam is a serious problem in the capital city of Dhaka. The major highways of the country are severely damaged and they are too narrow. That is why it takes a lot of time for the raw materials to reach the industries and also for the produced goods to be delivered to the ports or the local market. The government is working hard to improve the transportation infrastructure of the country. The Dhaka-Chittagong Highway is being expanded and the roads are being repaired.

Corruption was a serious issue of the country in the last decade. From 2001- 2005, Bangladesh was ranked as the most corrupted country in the world by Transparency International. On the last TI report, Bangladesh was ranked as the 120^th country in the corruption list which is well above Pakistan (134) but lower than Vietnam and India. Corruption can be a major hindrance for the growth of a nation. There is an Anti Corruption Commission in Bangladesh but the independence of the commission is somewhat doubtful.

To become an economically developed country, Bangladesh needs to solve these problems as soon as possible. If the government can act according to their plans, we can hope that these problems will be solved within the next three to five years.

The risks seemed pretty high, so is the profit margin! Therefore the group of companies in Bangladesh are doing very well and making good amount of money. It is expected that more local firms and foreign entities will invest their funds in Banladesh over the next five years in order to gain high profit.