Students of global economy are familiar with specific terms
defining the economic powers that influence trade and industry beyond their
borders. The Asian Tigers, for example, are the four highly-developed countries
(Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) that account for a good
percentage of market exports around the planet. Whether these nations will
remain on top is up for debate, but as implied by Goldman Sachs those included
in the Next Eleven group may prove competitive in the future. One such country
is Bangladesh.
Your first thought of Bangladesh might be of the Third
World. In the 1970s the country - formerly known as East Pakistan - suffered
the ravages of civil war and extreme weather conditions. The plight of her
people moved musicians George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to organize a benefit
concert to raise funds for relief - the first such charitable event, years
before Live Aid. Today, while Bangladesh maintains its rank among nations with
high poverty levels, it is slowly developing an economy that has shown
impressive growth over the years.
One might think, given the assumed paucity of natural
resources and industry in the country, that Bangladesh doesn't offer much in
the way of goods to export. Quite the contrary, though this neighbor to India
doesn't enjoy the same GNP level of the United States or nearby Asian nations,
Bangladesh exported in 2009 more than $18 billion worth of supplies annually, a
significant growth from $5 billion seven years prior. With the United States as
top customer (claiming almost a third of overall product), Bangladesh is known
primarily for these goods:
Textiles and Apparel:
In proving its place among the Next Eleven, Bangladesh has made quite a
mark in the textile export industry. Apparel exports, the nation's top
industry, surpassed that of India for the first time in 2009, accounting for
one-eighth of the country's overall export product.
Leather Materials: Hides
used for clothing and other products are a popular product for trade, and are
usually included in the totals for textile and apparel exports.
Jute: Jute is a
specific vegetable fiber, similar to hemp and flax, which is used in the
manufacture of textiles. Native to the region, jute is used in the production
of coarser fabrics like burlap.
Seafood and Fish
By-products: Recent issues with the Gulf oil spill have no doubt boosted
Bangladesh's role in the seafood trade. Always a popular export, fish
by-products and seafood are shipped stateside and to Europe regularly.
Ceramics: Pottery
for decorative and practical purposes are created and traded around the world.
Domestically, Bangladesh relies upon rice production to keep
the economy strong. Other items imported in, primarily from neighbors China,
India, and Singapore, help stimulate various industries. These include:
Crude Oil and
Petroleum: What Bangladesh lacks in natural resources for production, her
trade neighbors provide to allow for smooth operations.
Cotton: Perhaps the
most important element of the textile industry, cotton imported into Bangladesh
becomes the apparel that is exported around the globe.
Food: Though
two-thirds of the country's workers have jobs in agriculture, Bangladesh relies
on imports to supply foodstuffs.
Machinery: Equipment
for refining rice and textiles are especially needed, and provided for by more
developed countries.
Metals: For
domestic manufacturing, Bangladesh trades with metal rich nations to achieve
these goals.
Inexpensive labor and a growing GNP have helped Bangladesh
reach a spot in the Next Eleven. This is certainly a country to watch in the
next decade or so to see if their exponential growth will continue and impact
neighboring nations.
Kathryn Lively
Photo by Ragib Hasan, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.