Towels and Bedsheets: Bangladesh's Quiet Textile Adjacency

Bangladesh has 110 companies producing home textiles and terry towels, with towels making up 40% of exports and bedding around 50% — a quieter adjacency to the garment industry.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 5-minute read

Bangladesh's garment industry is famous. Its home textiles industry — towels, bedsheets, table linen, curtains — operates in the same buildings, with much the same workforce, and is barely discussed.

According to the Bangladesh Terry Towel & Linen Manufacturers & Exporters Association, 110 companies produce home textile and terry towel items in the country. Within their exports, towels account for about 40 percent and bedding around 50 percent.

A Note on the Numbers

Readers should treat market-size figures for this sector with caution. Published estimates of the Bangladesh home textile market for 2026 range from roughly $511 million to $1.8 billion to $3.8 billion, depending on the research house and — crucially — on how the category is defined.

That spread is too wide to treat any single figure as authoritative, and we are not going to pick one and present it as fact. What is verifiable is the industry structure: 110 producing companies, a roughly 40/50 split between towels and bedding, and an established export presence.

Why the Adjacency Works

Home textiles use the same core industrial capabilities as apparel: spinning, weaving, dyeing, cutting and stitching, operated by a workforce already trained to international buyer standards.

The differences favour the product in useful ways. Home textiles are less fashion-dependent than clothing — a white hotel towel does not go out of season — which means longer production runs, more stable order books and less exposure to trend risk.

They also sell to a different buyer set: hotel groups, hospital supply chains and homeware retailers rather than fashion brands. For a manufacturer, that is genuine customer diversification using existing equipment.

What Brings Buyers Here

Bangladeshi industry coverage identifies the draw plainly as quality and price together — the same combination that built the garment sector, applied to a category where buyers place large, repeating institutional orders.

The country's position in certified green manufacturing is directly relevant here too. Hotel chains and healthcare systems increasingly face their own sustainability reporting requirements, and a supplier operating from a LEED-certified facility answers that question before it is asked.

The Sector Has Been Through Difficulty

This has not been a smooth growth story. Bangladeshi business press has previously reported the terry towel sector in serious crisis, and the industry has had to work through periods of weak demand and margin pressure.

That history is part of an honest picture. Home textiles is a real industry with real capacity and real buyers — not a boom sector, and not one where every operator has prospered.

Where It Fits

Home textiles belongs to the same category as bicycles, ceramics and non-leather footwear — sectors where Bangladesh has built genuine export capability adjacent to its dominant industry, using overlapping skills and infrastructure.

With LDC graduation arriving in November 2026, these adjacencies matter more than their individual size suggests. Each represents an existing industrial capability that can absorb capital and grow without the country having to build a new sector from nothing.

Related reading

• Bangladesh's Furniture Industry: 2.5 Million Jobs, $110 Million Exported
• Beyond Garments: The Seven Industries Reshaping Bangladesh's Exports
• Why Garment Buyers and Investors Choose Bangladesh
• Tariffs Fell to 10% and Global Apparel Sourcing Reset Overnight

Sources

• "Quality, price bring home textile buyers to Bangladesh," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
• "Terry towel: A soft start later to grow into a billion dollar industry," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
• "Bangladesh's Home Textile Export Status and Global Market Share," Textile Focus — textilefocus.com
• "Home Textiles in Bangladesh: Applications, Global Market Share and Opportunities," Textile Blog — textileblog.com

One-Sixth of Bangladesh's Exports Come From Inside Its Export Zones

Bangladesh's export processing zones exported $8.41 billion in FY2025-26 — 17.51% of national exports — with record employment of 558,691 and record investment proposals of $717.71 million.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Bangladesh's export processing zones exported $8.41 billion in FY2025-26 — 17.51 percent of the country's total exports of roughly $48 billion.

More than one export dollar in six now originates inside a BEPZA zone.

Growth Against the Trend

The detail that matters most is comparative. BEPZA exports grew 2.2 percent in FY2025-26 — at a time when Bangladesh's overall exports declined slightly amid a global slowdown.

Zones outperforming the national average during a soft year is meaningful evidence about how they function. Firms inside them have serviced infrastructure, streamlined customs, duty-free input imports and dedicated utilities. When conditions tighten, those advantages show up as resilience.

The Cumulative Position

As of June 2026:

• $7.37 billion in cumulative investment.
• $127.42 billion in cumulative exports since the programme began.
• 558,691 people employed — the highest figure ever recorded in BEPZA zones, up from 533,527 a year earlier.
• 25,164 new jobs created during FY2025-26 alone.

Cumulative exports of $127.42 billion against cumulative investment of $7.37 billion is a return ratio worth pausing on: roughly seventeen dollars of exports generated for every dollar of investment placed in the zones.

A Record Year for Investment Proposals

BEPZA secured $717.71 million in proposed investment during FY2025-26 — a record.

Proposals are not committed capital, and this publication has been consistent about that distinction. But a record proposal year during a global slowdown indicates that international manufacturers are actively evaluating Bangladesh, whatever the eventual conversion rate.

It aligns with what has been visible elsewhere: Chinese firms driving roughly two-thirds of EPZ investment this fiscal year, and 63 companies signing leases at the Mirsarai zone representing $1.49 billion in proposed investment.

Why the Zone Model Works Here

Export processing zones solve a specific problem: they let a country offer world-class operating conditions in a defined area without having to fix everything everywhere first.

A manufacturer inside a BEPZA zone gets reliable power, functioning effluent treatment, customs on site, and tax holidays and duty exemptions. Those are exactly the conditions that Bangladesh's wider business environment — as the country's own reform agenda acknowledges — does not yet deliver uniformly.

That is also the argument behind the government's decision to concentrate on completing a small number of zones rather than announcing a hundred. The BEPZA numbers are what a properly resourced zone programme produces.

Expansion Underway

BEPZA is extending the model geographically, including plot allocation at Jashore EPZ — part of bringing zone infrastructure to regions outside the established Dhaka–Chattogram corridor, alongside the southern development the Padma Bridge enabled.

The Honest Reading

Two-point-two percent growth is modest in absolute terms, and 17.51 percent of exports means the great majority of Bangladesh's export economy still operates outside these zones.

What the figures demonstrate is narrower but useful: where Bangladesh provides serviced industrial land with reliable utilities and streamlined administration, manufacturers invest, employ people and export — through a slowing global economy, and at a rate that beats the national average.

That is a fairly direct answer to the question of what the country's investment climate needs.

Related reading

• Five Economic Zones, Not a Hundred: Bangladesh Changes Course
• Barisal: The Region the Padma Bridge Opened, Still Empty
• Food Processing: Bangladesh's $8 Billion Growth Curve
• 33,000 Acres: Inside Bangladesh's Largest Industrial Zone

Sources

• "BEPZA contributes 17.51pc to national exports in FY26," BSS News — bssnews.net
• "BEPZA exports grow 2.2pc to $8.41b in FY26," The Financial Express — thefinancialexpress.com.bd
• "Bepza attracts record $718m investment proposals in FY26," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
• "Bepza to start allocating plots in Jashore EPZ in 2026," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net

A Record $35 Billion Came Home — While Fewer Workers Left

Bangladesh received more than $35 billion in remittances in FY2025-26 — a record — even as overseas job departures fell to a five-year low amid Middle East disruption.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Bangladesh received more than $35 billion in remittances in FY2025-26 — a record.

In the same period, the number of workers leaving for overseas jobs fell to a five-year low. Understanding why both are true at once explains a great deal about the country's economy.

The Two Numbers

According to BMET, more than 9.69 lakh people left Bangladesh for overseas work in the last fiscal year — down 5 percent year-on-year, and well below the FY2024 peak when nearly 12 lakh departed, the highest on record.

The slowdown began around March, driven by regional conflict and the disruption of flights to Middle Eastern destinations.

Yet money sent home reached an all-time high.

Why Remittances Rose While Departures Fell

Remittance inflows reflect the stock of Bangladeshis already working abroad — several million people — not the flow of new departures in any single year. A worker who left in 2019 is still sending money in 2026.

Two additional factors matter. Policy has pushed steadily to move transfers from informal channels — the hundi system — into formal banking, through cash incentives for repatriating earnings through banks. Every taka shifted from informal to formal channels appears as an increase in recorded remittances without any change in what workers actually earn.

And the mobile financial services network has made receiving money formally far easier for a family in a village than it was a decade ago.

The Concentration Risk

The vulnerability in this system is stated plainly in Bangladeshi reporting: Saudi Arabia is currently the only market actively recruiting Bangladeshi workers, with most other destinations effectively closed.

Historically the principal destinations have been Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — a concentration in a single region that makes the entire flow sensitive to Gulf economic conditions, regional conflict, and individual countries' labour policy decisions.

A record remittance year built on a narrowing destination base is a strong result resting on a fragile structure.

The Diversification Response

The government is undertaking a programme from fiscal 2026-27 to expand overseas employment, diversify labour markets, improve skills and strengthen migrant worker welfare services.

Of those four, skills is the one that changes the economics rather than just the geography. Bangladeshi migration has been dominated by low-skilled temporary labour — which pays the least, offers the weakest protections, and is the first category cut when a destination economy slows.

Higher-skilled migration pays multiples more per worker and opens destinations beyond the Gulf. It is also the harder policy to execute, since it requires training and certification recognised by receiving countries before departure.

What $35 Billion Actually Does

Remittances are the most direct poverty-reduction mechanism Bangladesh has. The money arrives in household hands without passing through a government programme or a bank's lending decision, and it is spent on education, housing, healthcare and small business formation.

At the macro level it funds imports and stabilises foreign exchange reserves. At the consumer level it is a substantial part of why Bangladesh is heading toward ninth place among world consumer markets — $35 billion landing directly in household budgets is purchasing power that shows up immediately in demand for food, electronics, housing and services.

The Untapped Part

Most of that $35 billion goes into consumption, property and savings rather than productive enterprise.

As covered in our guide to investment routes, individual and diaspora investment is the least-developed of the three channels into Bangladesh — despite being the one with by far the largest pool of capital behind it. Channelling even a modest share of remittance flows into formal business investment would represent one of the largest available sources of domestic capital in the country.

Related reading

• Remittances Surge 25% as Migrant Workers Send Record Sums
• Malaysia Reopens Its Labour Market to Bangladeshi Workers at Zero Cost
• China Sells More Electric Cars in a Month Than America Does in a Year
• Bangladesh's Freelance Workforce: A Global Gig-Economy Power

Sources

• "Overseas jobs fall to five-year low amid Middle East uncertainty," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
• "Bangladesh plans new overseas job destinations, migrant workers' welfare," UNB — unb.com.bd
• "Bangladesh's Economic Vitality Owes in Part to Migration and Remittances," Migration Policy Institute — migrationpolicy.org
• "Low-skilled temporary migration policies: The case of Bangladesh," World Bank — worldbank.org

The Artisan Economy: Bangladesh's Oldest Industry Meets a Trillion-Dollar Market

Bangladesh's handicraft sector spans jamdani, shataranji, metalwork, pottery and bamboo-cane art, supported by millions of village artisans and a strong jute and natural fibre base.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Bangladesh's handicraft sector is simultaneously its oldest industry and one of its least commercially organised.

The range is unusually wide: jamdani and other handloom textiles including Tangail, Rajshahi silk and Monipuri weaving, alongside shataranji carpets, metalwork, conch shell craft, pottery, woodwork, shell art, doll art, brass work and bamboo-cane products.

Millions of artisans at village level earn their living from this work.

The Market They Are Selling Into

The global handicrafts market is estimated at around $1,107 billion and projected to reach $2.3 trillion, growing at a compound annual rate of about 10.15 percent.

Bangladesh's participation in that market is modest. Estimates of handicraft export value vary considerably between sources — a reflection of how much of the sector operates informally and how differently the category is defined — but every assessment agrees the country captures a small fraction of what its artisan base could support.

The Structural Advantages

Two are genuine and hard to replicate.

Skilled artisans at scale. Techniques like jamdani weaving take years to learn and are transmitted within families and communities. Bangladesh has that human capital in depth, and it cannot be created quickly anywhere else.

A natural fibre raw material base. Bangladesh is the world's largest jute exporter, and jute, bamboo, cane and shell are all domestically abundant. In a global market shifting steadily toward natural and sustainable materials, that is a favourable position rather than a legacy one.

The country also holds UNESCO recognition for several craft traditions, and the muslin revival project has demonstrated that the highest-end version of Bangladeshi textile craft can be reconstructed and commercialised.

Why the Sector Underperforms

The constraints are the standard ones for craft economies everywhere, and they are all about the layer between the artisan and the buyer:

• Fragmentation. Millions of individual producers cannot fill a bulk international order without aggregation.
• Design and market intelligence. Traditional products need adaptation to contemporary international taste — a design function that rarely exists between village workshop and export buyer.
• Quality consistency. Hand production varies. International buyers require tolerances.
• Certification and compliance. Export markets demand documentation smallholder producers cannot easily supply.
• Value capture. Where intermediaries dominate, the artisan receives a small share of the final price — which weakens the incentive to continue the craft at all.

What Is Working

Handicrafts sit squarely among the sectors where women-led enterprises concentrate — boutique and handicraft businesses are explicitly identified as a focus area for the Bangladesh SME Foundation's training and mentorship programmes, and among the categories the country's 2.8 million women-led SMEs operate in.

The delivery infrastructure and mobile payment rails now covering the country also change what is possible for a small producer: an artisan can sell directly to a domestic customer three districts away without any intermediary at all.

The Realistic Opportunity

Bangladesh will not compete with mass-produced homeware on price. The opportunity is at the opposite end: authenticated, origin-labelled, hand-produced goods sold into markets that pay premiums for provenance.

That is the same strategic logic this publication has identified in tea, in hilsa and in muslin — competing on identity and craft rather than on cost.

Bangladesh already holds Geographical Indication protection across a growing list of products. Applying that framework systematically to craft categories, alongside aggregation and design support, is the most direct route from millions of artisans to a meaningful share of a trillion-dollar market.

Related reading

• Jute's Second Chance — and the Bag That Replaces Plastic
• Third in Vegetables, Sixth in Potatoes: Bangladesh's Farming Numbers
• Bangladesh Is a Top-10 Mango Producer and Now Ships to 38 Countries
• Bangladesh Is Growing Coffee — 95 Tonnes and Counting

Sources

• "Export potential of Bangladesh's handicraft sector," The Financial Express — thefinancialexpress.com.bd
• "Export Potential of Handicraft Sector," Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute — bfti.org.bd
• "Handicrafts advancement and export potentiality from Bangladesh," Banglacraft — banglacraft.org
• "Tapping into vast potential of handicraft export," The Financial Express — thefinancialexpress.com.bd

The Delivery Network That Made Bangladeshi E-Commerce Possible

Pathao has completed over 130 million deliveries with 15 million app downloads, operating in 64 districts of Bangladesh and 22 cities in Nepal — the backbone of the country's e-commerce.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Sixty million Bangladeshis now shop online. That statistic is meaningless without an answer to a physical question: who carries the parcel to the door?

For a large share of those orders, the answer is Pathao.

The Scale

Founded in 2015, Pathao has by 2026 recorded:

• Over 15 million app downloads.
• More than 130 million deliveries completed.
• Operations across 64 districts of Bangladesh and 22 cities in Nepal.
• Pathao Courier serving 3,000-plus physical stores and online businesses across 50+ districts.

The company describes itself — and is described by the market — as Bangladesh's leading digital platform spanning ride-hailing, courier delivery, food delivery, fintech and digital credit, and as the country's number one courier delivery business. It is profitable and backed by international investors.

The Multi-Service Logic

Pathao's structure looks scattered — ride-hailing, food, parcels, credit — but the underlying asset is singular: a network of riders on motorcycles who know how to navigate Dhaka.

That network can carry a passenger, a meal or a parcel. Each additional service raises rider utilisation without requiring a new fleet, which is why the same platform profitably operates categories that would each struggle alone.

Digital credit follows naturally: a platform that observes a merchant's order volume and a rider's earnings has better underwriting data on both than any bank possesses.

The Wider Field

Pathao is not alone. Paperfly focuses specifically on e-commerce delivery, and ShopUp builds services for merchants and supply chains — both appear alongside Pathao among Bangladesh's top-ranked startups, within an ecosystem StartupBlink counted at 677 startups as of August 2026.

Between them, these firms constitute something Bangladesh did not have a decade ago: a functioning national parcel infrastructure independent of the postal service.

Why It Was Built Here First

Bangladesh's characteristics favour this model unusually strongly.

Density. Dhaka is among the most densely populated cities on earth. Deliveries per kilometre travelled are extremely high, which is the single most important variable in last-mile economics.

Motorcycles. In gridlocked traffic, two wheels beat four decisively. The fleet is also far cheaper to acquire and run than vans.

Digital payment. Over 70 million mobile money users means orders can be paid for without cash — though cash-on-delivery remains common, and handling it is itself a service the couriers provide.

Young workforce. A large population of young men seeking flexible income supplied the rider base quickly.

What It Unlocked

Delivery infrastructure is permissive infrastructure — it makes other businesses possible.

The 2.8 million women-led SMEs, many selling through Facebook and Instagram, can reach customers nationwide because a courier network exists. E-pharmacies can deliver medicine. Food businesses can sell beyond their immediate neighbourhood. Agritech platforms can move produce from farm to buyer.

None of those categories works without the parcel actually arriving.

The Regional Signal

Pathao's expansion into 22 cities in Nepal is worth noting for what it represents rather than its size: a Bangladeshi technology company exporting an operating model to another country and running it profitably.

Bangladesh exports goods in enormous volume. Exporting a service platform — the software, the operational know-how, the management — is a different and higher-value proposition, and one that the country's diversification strategy has not yet fully recognised.

Related reading

• Union Information Service Centres: Bangladesh's Village Digital Network
• 60 Million Bangladeshis Now Shop Online
• Dhaka's Startup Ecosystem: Bangladesh's Race for Its Next Unicorn
• Tk 500 Crore for Startups: Bangladesh Backs Its Founders

Sources

• "677 Top startups in Bangladesh for August 2026," StartupBlink — startupblink.com
• "The Emerging Logistics Tech Startups, Courier, Delivery Services in Bangladesh," UNB — unb.com.bd
• "The State of Fast-growing Logistics Startups in Bangladesh," Future Startup — futurestartup.com

From Two to Fifteen: Bangladeshi Universities Enter the World Rankings

Fifteen Bangladeshi universities appeared in world rankings in 2025, up from four in 2023 and two in 2022. The country has 55 public and 103 private universities.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

In 2022, two Bangladeshi universities appeared in global university rankings. In 2023, four. In 2025, fifteen.

Roughly half of those ranked institutions are private universities — a category that barely existed in Bangladesh a generation ago.

The System's Shape

Bangladesh's higher education sector now comprises:

• 55 public universities
• 103 private universities (106 ranked by uniRank in 2026)
• 3 international universities
• 31 specialised colleges and 2 special universities

The University Grants Commission estimates that total tertiary enrolment across the decade from 2016 to 2026 may reach 4.6 million.

Leading private institutions include North South University, BRAC University, East West University and Independent University Bangladesh, many with international partnerships and a research emphasis. Daffodil International University ranked second among all Bangladeshi universities and first among private ones by SCOPUS-indexed research publications, and placed around #1,022 in the U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings.

Why Rankings Moved So Fast

Global rankings weight research output, citations and international collaboration heavily. A sevenfold increase in three years reflects institutions beginning to publish in indexed journals at volume — the direct result of hiring research-active faculty, funding doctoral programmes and building international co-authorship.

The private universities' prominence is notable. Freed from some of the constraints on public institutions, several have pursued rankings deliberately as a competitive strategy, since a ranking position is the clearest quality signal available to a fee-paying student choosing between them.

Why This Matters to the Economy

Almost every growth sector this publication covers is constrained by skills rather than capital.

Semiconductor design needs VLSI engineers — now taught at around two dozen Bangladeshi universities. The national digital strategy targets 50,000 trained cybersecurity professionals by 2030 and an ICT workforce of seven to eight million. Pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing requires regulatory scientists. Electronics assembly needs technicians the country does not yet have in sufficient numbers.

None of those needs are met by expanding enrolment alone. They require graduates who can work to international professional standards — which is precisely what research capability and international partnership tend to produce.

The Gaps Worth Naming

Fifteen ranked universities is progress from two. It is not, by itself, a strong position: Bangladesh does not have an institution in the global top several hundred, and #1,022 is the country's best documented placement.

Three constraints recur in domestic commentary on the sector:

• Research funding remains low relative to enrolment.
• Faculty with doctoral qualifications are in short supply, particularly outside the leading institutions.
• Industry-academia linkage is thin — though initiatives like Ulkasemi's VLSI training institute and university-adjacent incubators are beginning to bridge it.

The trajectory is the encouraging part. A country that went from two ranked universities to fifteen in three years is improving considerably faster than one that has been stable at fifteen for a decade.

Related reading

• Bangladesh's Literacy Rate Reaches 77.9 Percent
• 65% Under 35: Bangladesh's Demographic Window Is Open Now
• Chorki Hit 30 Million Users. Bangladesh's Streaming Wars Are Real.
• Malaysia Reopens Its Labour Market to Bangladeshi Workers at Zero Cost

Sources

• "Pathways to world rankings for private universities in Bangladesh," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
• "Achieving our higher education targets," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
• "Universities in Bangladesh," Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
• "Top Universities in Bangladesh: 2026 Rankings," uniRank — unirank.org

The Startups Raising Bangladeshi Farm Incomes by 30 Percent

Research indicates Bangladesh's agritech startups have raised farmer incomes by around 30% on average. There are 75 such startups, led by iFarmer with over $3.5 million in funding.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Bangladesh has 75 agritech startups, of which seven have raised funding. Over the past decade, an average of about five new companies have launched each year.

The number that matters most is not the count of companies but this: research indicates Bangladeshi agritech startups have increased farmer incomes by around 30 percent on average.

Why a 30 Percent Income Gain Is Possible

That figure sounds implausible until you understand where a smallholder farmer's money currently goes.

A typical Bangladeshi farmer works a small plot, sells to a local trader at whatever price is offered on the day, buys inputs on credit at high effective interest, and has no reliable information about what the same crop is fetching fifty kilometres away.

Value leaks at every one of those points — and none of the leaks are caused by how the farming itself is done. Fix market access, input pricing and information, and the same harvest earns substantially more. That is the entire agritech thesis, and in a market this inefficient the available gains are correspondingly large.

Who Is Building

The sector has identifiable companies with real operations:

• iFarmer — the highest-funded in the vertical, with over $3.5 million raised, working on farmer financing and supply chain linkage.
• Fashol — connecting farmers directly to buyers, cutting intermediary layers.
• Dr. Chashi — advisory services for farmers.
• Agroshift Technologies — supply chain and retail.
• Krishi Shwapno — agricultural services.

Analysts note that agritech is a relationship business rather than a pure technology one: it requires trust with farmers, arrangements with buyers, logistics partners and standing in local communities. That is harder to build than an app, and harder for a competitor to copy once built.

Why Bangladesh Is Well Suited

The country combines conditions that rarely occur together.

Agricultural scale. Bangladesh ranks third worldwide in vegetables and rice, sixth in potatoes, and second in inland fisheries. There is an enormous volume of production to optimise.

Density. Farms are close together and close to cities. Aggregation logistics that fail across vast rural interiors elsewhere are workable here.

Digital rails. Over 70 million mobile money users means a farmer can be paid digitally without a bank branch — the payment problem that blocks agritech in many markets is already solved.

Connectivity. Near-universal 4G coverage means advisory content and price information can reach a phone in a village.

The Funding Reality

Seven funded companies out of 75 is a thin conversion rate, and iFarmer's $3.5 million — while the sector's largest — is modest against the scale of the problem being addressed.

Local capital is emerging, including the reported $35 million Onkur Bangladesh Fund 1, though experienced observers caution that founders should track deployed capital rather than announced funds. The government's Tk 500 crore startup fund is another potential source.

Agritech sits alongside healthtech, fintech, e-commerce, logistics and education among the sectors currently building momentum in Bangladesh — all of them, notably, solving daily problems around payments, delivery, trust and access rather than chasing novelty.

Why the Development Case Is Unusually Clean

Most startup sectors serve the relatively well-off first and reach lower-income users later, if ever.

Agritech inverts that. Its customers are smallholder farmers — among the lower-income segments of the population — and its measured outcome is a 30 percent income increase for exactly that group. A commercial sector whose growth mechanism is raising the incomes of poor households is a rare alignment, and worth more policy attention than it currently receives.

Related reading

• Bangladesh Is the World's Third-Largest Rice Producer
• Third in Vegetables, Sixth in Potatoes: Bangladesh's Farming Numbers
• A Strong El Niño Is Forming Over the Region That Grows 90% of the World's Rice
• Bangladesh's $3.2 Billion Poultry Industry Supports 8.5 Million Jobs

Sources

• "List of 75 AgriTech Startups in Bangladesh & Market Trends," Tracxn — tracxn.com
• "A List of Bangladesh's Most Fascinating Agritech Startups," Future Startup — futurestartup.com
• "Harvesting Potential: The Rise of Agritech Startups in Bangladesh," ExitStack — exitstack.co

Bangladesh's HealthTech Sector: 453 Startups and a Behavioural Shift

Bangladesh has 453 healthtech startups and over $32 million invested since 2015, with a $200 million government Digital Health Fund and 73% of urban users preferring app-based appointments.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Bangladesh now has 453 healthtech startups. Fifteen have raised funding, one at Series A or beyond, and more than $32 million has been invested in the sector since 2015.

The government has committed a $200 million Digital Health Fund covering 2024 to 2026 — a figure that dwarfs private investment to date and signals where policy intends the sector to go.

The Number That Explains the Opportunity

One statistic captures why this sector is moving: 73 percent of urban Bangladeshi users now prefer app-based doctor appointments.

A further 61 percent say they would pay for advanced health insights such as genetic testing — which indicates willingness to pay for health services beyond the bare minimum, in a market often assumed to be purely price-driven.

That behavioural shift is the precondition for everything else. Health technology fails in markets where patients insist on physical consultation; it scales where they do not.

Market Size

Bangladesh's telehealth market was estimated at $402 million in 2025, projected to reach $556 million by 2032 at a compound annual rate of about 5.7 percent. The serviceable obtainable market across e-pharmacy, diagnostics and telemedicine is projected at $172.9 million by 2027.

These are moderate figures by global standards, and they should be read that way. The significance is less the current market size than the direction and the infrastructure now in place to serve it.

Who Is Building

The sector has produced identifiable companies rather than only concepts:

• Arogga — online pharmacy and health solutions, addressing medicine access and authenticity.
• Pulse Healthcare Services — healthcare delivery services.
• Moner Bondhu — mental health support, in a market where such services have been scarce and stigmatised.
• IT Medicus — telemedicine and electronic health records.

The e-pharmacy segment is particularly well matched to Bangladeshi conditions. The country manufactures the overwhelming majority of its own medicines and exports to more than 160 countries — so the supply exists domestically, and the problem is distribution and verification rather than production.

Why the Infrastructure Is Ready

Healthtech requires three things Bangladesh has recently acquired.

Connectivity. 13.36 crore internet subscribers and near-universal 4G coverage.

Payments. Over 70 million mobile money users, meaning consultations and medicines can be paid for without a card.

Delivery. The courier networks that grew out of e-commerce can carry medicines as readily as parcels.

Each was built for another purpose. Healthtech inherits all three.

The Public Health Case

The commercial framing understates what is at stake. Bangladesh has achieved genuinely notable health outcomes — WHO recognised its maternal mortality reduction ahead of the 2030 SDG deadline — largely through community health workers and systematic primary care rather than expensive technology.

Telemedicine extends that same logic. A specialist consultation delivered to a district where no specialist practises does not replace the health system; it extends its reach. In a country where doctors concentrate heavily in Dhaka and Chattogram, that geographic redistribution is the central value.

It also aligns with the universal digital Health Card introduced in the FY2026-27 budget, which links to an integrated patient management and referral system. A national health record is the substrate every healthtech application ultimately needs.

What Would Accelerate It

The sector's limiting factor is capital rather than demand. Fifteen funded companies out of 453 is a low conversion rate, and $32 million across a decade is modest for a market of 170 million people.

The $200 million government fund could change that arithmetic substantially — provided it is deployed as investment into companies rather than absorbed into public systems. That distinction will determine whether Bangladesh ends up with a healthtech industry or simply better government IT.

Related reading

• WHO Praises Bangladesh's Maternal Mortality Progress
• Bangladesh Nearly Doubles Its Health Budget to Tk 69,409 Crore
• Bangladesh Set Out to Vaccinate 50 Million Children Against Typhoid
• WHO Honours Bangladesh in Dili for Beating a 2030 Maternal Health Target

Sources

• "HealthTech Opportunities in Bangladesh," sector analysis — Sector Analysis of HealthTech Bangladesh
• "Top startups in HealthTech in Bangladesh," Tracxn — tracxn.com
• "The HealthTech startups driving Bangladesh's emerging digital healthcare landscape," 2030.solutions — 2030.solutions
• "Bangladesh Telehealth Market Forecast," 6Wresearch — 6wresearch.com

Bangladesh Is Building Its Own Cloud

Bangladesh's data centre industry is growing around 30%, outpacing India and Vietnam, with over Tk 5,200 crore invested — including a $200 million Tier-IV facility and a hyperscale park in Dhaka.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Every digital service this publication has covered — mobile financial services, streaming platforms, government digital services, delivery apps — runs on servers somewhere. For most of Bangladesh's digital history, "somewhere" meant abroad.

That is changing quickly, and with unusual amounts of foreign capital behind it.

The Investment Numbers

Bangladesh's data centre industry was valued at roughly Tk 2,000 crore in 2023, and is projected to grow at about 30 percent — a rate that outpaces both India and Vietnam.

Private, public and foreign entities have invested or committed more than Tk 5,200 crore, with roughly half coming from overseas. Two commitments stand out:

• Yotta Infrastructure, the Indian data centre operator, announced plans to invest BDT 20 billion (about $190.5 million) in a hyperscale data centre park in Dhaka.
• Osiris Group of the United States, with Jatra International, is investing $200 million in a Tier-IV facility.

Foreign investors putting nine-figure sums into fixed, immovable infrastructure is a meaningful signal. Data centres cannot be relocated if conditions deteriorate — the capital is committed to the country for the life of the asset.

Why Tier IV Specifically

Several new projects target Tier-IV certification, the highest classification for uptime, security and fault tolerance, promising roughly 99.995 percent availability. Tier IV builds are growing at about a 16.4 percent compound rate.

The reason is customer-driven. Banks and government agencies require fault-tolerant architecture — a bank cannot accept its core systems being unavailable, and neither can the systems behind national digital identity and payment infrastructure. Tier IV is what those customers will sign for.

The Sovereignty Argument

The strategic case is straightforward: domestic data centre capacity means Bangladeshi organisations no longer depend solely on foreign cloud providers.

That matters in three concrete ways. Data residency requirements for financial and health records become satisfiable domestically. Latency drops for local users. And foreign exchange stops leaving the country in monthly cloud subscription payments.

It connects directly to the governance commitments in the National Digital Transformation Strategy, including an independent Data and AI Authority — a body that is considerably easier to give effect to when the data physically sits inside the jurisdiction.

Two Honest Caveats

State-run facilities have underperformed. Bangladeshi business press has reported significant public money spent on state data centres that have not delivered proportionate returns. The current growth is being driven predominantly by private and foreign capital, and the distinction matters when assessing the sector.

Resource intensity is a real question. Data centres consume substantial electricity and water for cooling. Environmental journalism has examined the water demands of Bangladesh's data centre expansion, and in a country facing complex water management challenges, that is a legitimate consideration rather than a technicality.

Both are arguments for building well rather than for not building.

Why the Timing Works

Bangladesh's demand side is already in place: 13.36 crore internet subscribers, over 70 million mobile money users, 60 million people shopping online, and a government digitising more than 800 services.

Every one of those generates data that has to live somewhere. Building that capacity domestically — rather than exporting the workload and the payments — is the difference between participating in the digital economy and merely consuming it.

Related reading

• Chinese Firms Pledge $9.21 Billion to Bangladesh
• 800 Acres, $1.3 Billion: The Chinese Economic Zone in Chattogram
• Five Economic Zones, Not a Hundred: Bangladesh Changes Course
• BIDA's One-Stop Service: Investor Approvals, Online

Sources

• "Bangladesh's first cloud data center starts operations," Data Center Dynamics — datacenterdynamics.com
• "Insights on the Data Centre Industry," Upturn — upturn.com.bd
• "Bangladesh Data Center Market Size, Share & Growth Trends Report," Mordor Intelligence — mordorintelligence.com
• "Digital Dreams, Parched Reality: The Hidden Cost of Bangladesh's Data Industry Gold Rush," Earth Journalism Network — earthjournalism.net

The Quiet Swap: Bangladesh Is Putting Its Irrigation on Solar Power

IDCOL has installed 2,226 solar irrigation pumps and targets 10,000 by 2027, part of a plan for 150 MW from the irrigation sector — cutting diesel imports and farmer costs.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Bangladesh's agricultural productivity — third in the world for vegetables and rice — depends on irrigation that extends the growing season beyond the monsoon. For decades, most of that irrigation has run on diesel.

Diesel is imported, paid for in foreign currency, subject to global price swings, and burned in hundreds of thousands of small pumps across the country. Replacing it is one of the more sensible energy interventions available.

What Has Been Installed

As of May 2024, IDCOL had installed 2,226 solar irrigation pumps across the country. Alongside them: 661 from BMDA, 29 from BADC and 10 from other organisations — around 49 MW of capacity in total.

IDCOL's target is 10,000 solar irrigation pumps by 2027, within a broader government goal of 150 MW of generation from the irrigation sector.

What One Pump Does

Under the IDCOL programme, pumps range from 3 to 18.5 kW, operating at dynamic heads of 10 to 18 metres. An average unit at 18.5 kW irrigates around 18 hectares and can lift 2,500 to 3,000 cubic metres of water per day.

The economics for a farmer are straightforward. A diesel pump has a low purchase price and a permanent fuel bill. A solar pump has a high purchase price and effectively no running cost. Over the life of the equipment, solar wins — the obstacle is financing the upfront gap, which is exactly the problem IDCOL exists to solve.

The Institution Doing It

IDCOL is the same government-owned financial institution behind the world's largest off-grid solar home systems programme, which put 4.1 million systems on rural rooftops and reached roughly 20 million people.

That is not a coincidence — it is the same model applied to a different problem. IDCOL acts as a wholesale financier, working through partner organisations that handle installation and servicing, with the end user paying in instalments rather than upfront.

Having proven the mechanism once at enormous scale, applying it to irrigation is a lower-risk proposition than starting from scratch.

Why the Rollout Is Slower Than the Target

2,226 installed against a 10,000 target by 2027 implies a substantial acceleration is required, and reporting on the programme has described the rollout as difficult.

The reasons are practical. A solar irrigation pump costs far more upfront than a solar home system, so the financing burden per unit is heavier. Pumps also need to be sited where there is both suitable groundwater and enough farmland within reach to justify the capacity — a matching problem that does not arise when installing a panel on a house.

There is also a genuine sustainability question that researchers have raised: because solar pumping has no marginal fuel cost, it removes the price signal that previously discouraged over-extraction of groundwater. Free pumping can encourage using more water than an aquifer can replace. Work by IWMI and others on solar irrigation and groundwater sustainability in Bangladesh addresses exactly this trade-off.

That is a real design consideration rather than an argument against the technology — and it is better identified now than after 10,000 pumps are in the ground.

Why It Adds Up Nationally

Three benefits accrue at once. Diesel imports fall, reducing foreign exchange outflow. Farmers' operating costs fall, raising net income from the same harvest. And emissions from a large, dispersed source decline — the kind of distributed abatement that is normally difficult to achieve.

The Asian Development Bank has published a roadmap for scaling solar irrigation pumps in Bangladesh through 2031, which indicates the level of institutional attention behind it.

For a country pursuing 10,000 MW of renewable capacity, irrigation is an unusually good place to put solar: demand peaks during daylight, exactly when the panels produce.

Related reading

• Bangladesh Built the World's Largest Off-Grid Solar Programme
• Bangladesh's Renewable Energy Push Toward 10,000 MW
• Solar-Plus-Storage Investment Hit a Record $25 Billion in Six Months
• Bangladesh Now Imports 60 MW of Nepali Hydropower Across India

Sources

• "Solar Irrigation Program," Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) — idcol.org
• "Road Map to Scale Up Solar Irrigation Pumps in Bangladesh (2023–2031)," Asian Development Bank — adb.org
• "What the evidence says about solar irrigation and groundwater sustainability in Bangladesh," IWMI SoLAR — solar.iwmi.org
• "Solar irrigation pumps: Transforming to smart irrigation and improving agriculture in Bangladesh," pv magazine — pv-magazine.com

Third in the World for Vegetables: Bangladesh's Agricultural Arithmetic

Bangladesh ranks third worldwide in vegetable production, sixth in potatoes with 11.4 million tonnes projected for 2026, and tenth in tropical fruit — from a country the size of Greece.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Bangladesh occupies roughly 148,000 square kilometres — about the size of Greece, or the American state of Illinois. A substantial portion floods during the monsoon each year.

From that land, the country ranks:

• 3rd in the world for vegetable production
• 3rd in the world for rice production
• 6th in the world for potato production — with output projected at 11.4 million tonnes in 2026, up from 10.3 million in 2021
• 10th in the world for tropical fruit production

Alongside second place in inland fisheries and fifth in aquaculture, this is one of the most productive uses of limited land and water anywhere.

How It Is Done

The explanation is cropping intensity. Bangladeshi farmland is not harvested once a year — much of it produces two or three crops annually, rotating rice with vegetables, potatoes and pulses across the seasons.

That intensity rests on three things: reliable irrigation extending the growing season beyond the monsoon; high-yielding varieties developed by domestic agricultural research institutions; and an extraordinary density of smallholder farmers working plots with a level of attention that large mechanised operations cannot match.

The irrigation component is being modernised directly — solar-powered irrigation pumps are replacing diesel units, cutting both fuel imports and operating costs for farmers.

Where the Potatoes Go

Potato is Bangladesh's most export-ready horticultural crop, and shipments already reach a wide list of markets: Malaysia — the largest importer — followed by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with further trade to Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Brunei, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan and Lebanon.

The pattern is instructive: most of these are Gulf and South-East Asian markets with large South Asian expatriate populations. Bangladesh's migrant workforce abroad is, in effect, also a distribution channel for its agricultural exports.

The Export Gap

Being third in the world at growing vegetables has not translated into export earnings on a matching scale, and Bangladeshi analysts are direct about why.

Narrow product basket. Exports concentrate on relatively few items rather than the full range the country grows.

Perishability and freight. Fresh vegetables and fruit spoil quickly, and sea freight — the affordable option — is largely unavailable to them. Air freight is expensive and, until the Third Terminal at Dhaka airport expands cargo capacity, constrained.

Certification. European and Middle Eastern buyers require food safety documentation that smallholder supply chains struggle to provide consistently.

The route around all three is the same one: processing. A frozen, dried, canned or puréed product does not perish, ships by sea, and carries a higher value per kilogram than the raw crop.

The Investment Reading

For an investor, the combination is unusual: world-scale raw material availability, low input costs, and almost no processing capacity between the field and the export market.

That is precisely where agritech firms are also concentrating — research indicates Bangladeshi agritech startups have raised farmer incomes by around 30 percent on average, largely by fixing market access and reducing the losses that occur between harvest and sale.

The crops are already being grown. What remains unbuilt is everything that happens after they leave the field.

Related reading

• Bangladesh Is the World's Third-Largest Rice Producer
• Bangladesh Is Growing Coffee — 95 Tonnes and Counting
• Bangladesh Is a Top-10 Mango Producer and Now Ships to 38 Countries
• Bangladesh's $3.2 Billion Poultry Industry Supports 8.5 Million Jobs

Sources

• "Bangladesh among world's top 10 in 13 sectors," Prothom Alo — en.prothomalo.com
• "Bangladesh Fresh Potato: Suppliers & Market Trends," Tridge — tridge.com
• "Vegetable exports fail to grow due to weak diversification of basket and market," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
• "Potato Production and Consumption: Bangladesh," PotatoPro — potatopro.com

The 2.8 Million Businesses Bangladeshi Women Are Running

Women lead around 2.8 million SMEs in Bangladesh — a quarter of all small businesses — employing an estimated 8.4 million people, though women hold just 7.2% of registered businesses.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Around 2.8 million small and medium enterprises in Bangladesh are led by women — close to 25 percent of all SMEs in the country. Between them, these businesses employ an estimated 8.4 million people.

To put that in proportion: women-led SMEs employ roughly twice as many people as the entire ready-made garment industry.

Female Labour Force Participation Has Reached 42.7%

Women's labour force participation in Bangladesh now stands at 42.7 percent — a figure that has climbed substantially over recent decades and sits above several regional comparators.

The garment industry drove much of that historic shift, as this publication has covered in its report on how garment work rewrote women's economic life. What the SME numbers show is the next stage: women moving from employment into ownership.

The Number That Reveals the Constraint

Set the encouraging figures against this one: women own just 7.2 percent of all registered businesses.

A quarter of SMEs are women-led, but only 7.2 percent of registered businesses are women-owned. The gap between those two statistics is the entire problem in a single comparison.

Most women-led enterprises operate as micro-enterprises, informally — outside the registration system. And informality has hard consequences:

• No access to institutional finance. Banks lend to registered entities with documented accounts.
• No access to formal supply chains. Corporate buyers require registered suppliers with tax compliance.
• No access to export markets. Exporting requires registration certificates.
• No legal protection in contract disputes.

An informal business can survive. It cannot easily scale.

What Is Changing

As of May 2026, women entrepreneurs are being described in Bangladeshi business coverage as an increasingly dynamic force in the SME sector, with concrete policy support behind the shift:

• Targeted refinance schemes improving credit access.
• Banks directed to allocate dedicated SME lending specifically for women entrepreneurs — a quota approach that addresses the documented tendency of lending to flow to male-owned businesses by default.
• The Bangladesh SME Foundation expanding training, mentorship and capacity-building programmes.

The UNDP has separately worked on gender-specific investment barriers facing Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs — a recognition that the obstacles are structural rather than reflecting any shortage of businesses to invest in.

Where These Businesses Operate

Women-led enterprises concentrate in agro-processing, boutique and handicrafts, online retail and service businesses.

Each of those maps onto a growth sector covered elsewhere on this site. Agro-processing sits inside a foodservice market heading from $4.56 billion to $8.28 billion. Online retail runs on the delivery infrastructure and mobile payment rails now covering the country. Handicrafts feed a global market measured in the hundreds of billions.

These are not marginal sectors. They are among the fastest-growing parts of the domestic economy.

Why This Is an Economic Argument, Not Only a Social One

The case for formalising and financing these 2.8 million businesses does not rest on fairness alone, though that case is sound.

It rests on the observation that a quarter of the country's SMEs are operating below their potential capacity because of a financing and registration gap — not because of any deficiency in the businesses themselves. Closing that gap converts existing enterprises into larger ones without having to create anything new.

For investors, this is a genuinely under-served segment: proven operating businesses, established customer bases, and limited competition for their capital because the formal financial system has historically not reached them.

Related reading

• Light Engineering: Bangladesh's $12.5 Billion Export Target
• Bangladesh Women Beat UAE to Reach the Asia Cup Semifinal
• Bangladesh Tea: 95 Million Kilos and a 2030 Target
• Padma OS: Bangladesh Builds Its Own Bengali-First Linux

Sources

• "Women entrepreneurs help driving SME growth," BSS News — bssnews.net
• "Breaking Barriers: Addressing Gender-Specific Investment Challenges for Women Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh," UNDP — undp.org
• "Boosting women's labour force participation: Opportunities and challenges in Bangladesh," VoxDev — voxdev.org
• "Progressing female labour force participation in Bangladesh," International Growth Centre — theigc.org

A Billion Watch Hours: How Bangladesh Built Its Own Streaming Industry

Bangladeshi streaming platform Chorki passed 1 billion watch hours and 30 million users within four years of launch, competing directly with Netflix and regional players.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

When Netflix entered Bangladesh in 2016, the assumption in most markets was familiar: global platforms arrive, local competitors get squeezed out.

That is not what happened here. Netflix has an estimated 200,000 active subscribers in Bangladesh. The homegrown platform Chorki, launched in 2021, reported more than 1 billion watch hours and 30 million users by its fourth anniversary in 2025.

The Local Field

Chorki — backed by the newspaper group Prothom Alo — carries 500-plus titles and has pursued a deliberate quality-over-quantity strategy, including co-productions with Indian filmmakers.

Bongo, established in 2013, was Bangladesh's first OTT streaming service and offers weekly, monthly and yearly subscription tiers — pricing granularity that matters enormously in a market where a monthly commitment is a real decision.

Alongside them: Toffee, Bioscope and Binge, plus Hoichoi — a Bengali-language platform with foreign roots that has drawn around 500,000 subscribers.

Why Local Platforms Won

Three factors explain the outcome, and they are instructive well beyond streaming.

Language and cultural specificity. Global platforms serve Bangladesh mostly with imported content and a limited Bengali catalogue. Local platforms commission Bangladeshi stories, in Bangla, with Bangladeshi actors — which is what most of the audience actually wants to watch.

Pricing built for the market. A global subscription priced for a Western consumer is expensive relative to Bangladeshi incomes. Weekly plans and locally calibrated pricing put streaming within reach of a far larger audience.

Payment infrastructure. This is the underrated one. Bangladesh has over 70 million mobile money users. Local platforms integrated with bKash and Nagad from the start; international services generally expect a card. In a market where most adults have a mobile wallet and comparatively few have credit cards, that difference alone decides who can subscribe.

What It Means for the Screen Industry

Streaming platforms are commissioners. Thirty million users generate subscription revenue that funds original production — series, films and documentaries made in Bangladesh, by Bangladeshi crews, for a paying domestic audience.

That is a structurally different funding model from the cinema-release economics that constrained Bangladeshi film for decades, and it arrives at the same moment as the country's first Venice Orizzonti competition selection. Domestic commissioning capacity and international festival recognition reinforce each other: platforms fund the work, festivals validate it, and validation attracts co-production partners.

Chorki's Indian co-productions are the visible early form of that.

The Tax Question

The sector's main near-term risk is fiscal rather than competitive. A proposed 10 percent supplementary duty in the 2025-26 budget drew industry objection, on the argument that an industry with an average company lifespan of four to five years is too young to absorb it.

The counter-argument is straightforward — a sector with 30 million users is a taxable industry. The question is timing: taxing a market before its business models stabilise risks entrenching the global platforms that can absorb the cost, at the expense of the local ones that cannot.

The Wider Point

Bangladesh's streaming market is one of relatively few consumer-internet categories anywhere in which local firms out-compete global incumbents on their own ground.

The reasons — language, pricing and payment rails — are the same reasons this publication has noted in browsers, payments and logistics. Local knowledge is a genuine competitive advantage in a market this specific, and Bangladeshi firms have repeatedly proved it.

Related reading

• 20,000 People Work in Bangladeshi Animation Studios. Most Credits Don't Say So.
• How bKash and Nagad Made Bangladesh a Cashless Pioneer
• 5G Reaches 84% of Rich Countries and 4% of Poor Ones
• 60 Million Bangladeshis Now Shop Online

Sources

• "Chorki," Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
• "Looming new tax overshadows Bangladesh's nascent OTT industry," The Financial Express — thefinancialexpress.com.bd
• "Exploring the Factors Behind Bangladeshi Viewer Loyalty to Homegrown OTT Platforms," Inspira Advisory and Consulting — inspira-bd.com
• "List of Bangladeshi OTT platforms," Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org

Bangladesh Football Is Filling Stadiums Again

Bangladesh beat San Marino 2-1 in June 2026 on its first European tour, sold out home matches after Hamza Choudhury's debut, and became South Asia's most valuable national squad.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Cricket has dominated Bangladeshi sport for a generation, and football — once the country's most-watched game — spent years playing to half-empty stands. That has changed quickly, and the change has a name attached to it.

The Player Who Changed the Conversation

Hamza Choudhury, a midfielder with English Premier League experience, chose to represent Bangladesh. He made his debut in an away fixture against India on 25 March, contributing to a goalless draw that earned a creditable point against the region's strongest side.

The effect on perception was immediate. Bangladesh became the most valuable national squad in South Asia by market value, and tickets for Hamza's first home appearance sold out rapidly — a sharp reversal from years in which even significant fixtures failed to fill stadiums.

Choudhury's return to Sheffield United has been described in Bangladeshi sports coverage as potentially game-changing for the national team, since regular football at a high level keeps an international player sharp.

The Result That Travelled

On 5 June 2026, Bangladesh beat San Marino 2-1 — the first time the national team had toured Europe and defeated a European nation.

San Marino sits near the bottom of world football, and nobody in Dhaka is pretending otherwise. What matters is the category of the result: a competitive away win on European soil, against a UEFA member, is a fixture Bangladesh had never previously secured. Playing and winning outside Asia changes what a squad believes is achievable.

The Ranking, Honestly

Bangladesh climbed from 185th to 183rd in the FIFA rankings after the India draw, and as of July 2026 stood at 181st.

That is not a good ranking, and the responsible minister has publicly addressed why the country remains there. Rankings respond slowly, weighted toward the quality of opposition faced — and a team that plays few matches against highly-ranked sides cannot climb quickly regardless of improvement.

The honest position is that Bangladesh has improved from a low base and is playing more competitively, while the ranking has barely moved. Both things are true.

Why the Diaspora Route Matters

Hamza Choudhury's decision points to something with implications beyond one player.

Bangladesh has a large diaspora, particularly in the United Kingdom, where second- and third-generation British-Bangladeshis grow up inside professional football academies with coaching, facilities and competitive standards that domestic Bangladeshi football cannot yet match.

Every footballing nation that has risen quickly in the modern era has drawn on players developed abroad. For Bangladesh, the diaspora represents a pool of talent already trained to professional standards — and Choudhury's example makes the next player's decision easier.

That is the same diaspora that sends home record remittances. Football is simply another form of the same connection.

What Sustains It

Full stadiums generate the revenue that funds youth development, coaching qualifications and domestic league quality — which is what eventually produces home-grown players rather than recruited ones.

The risk is that the surge depends on one individual. If interest is built around a single player, it fades when he does. Converting current attention into academies, pitches and coaching infrastructure is what determines whether this is a revival or a moment.

For now, the fixture list has a European win on it and the tickets are selling. In Bangladeshi football, both are new.

Related reading

• UNESCO Added 25 World Heritage Sites, Taking the List to 1,273
• Bangladesh's First Venice Orizzonti Selection
• Cox's Bazar: 120 Kilometres of Beach, Now Reachable by Train
• Bangladesh Cricket's Busiest Autumn: Semifinal, Asian Games, Tri-Series

Sources

• "Hamza's impact as Bangladesh climbs two places in FIFA ranking," Dhaka Tribune — dhakatribune.com
• "The rise of Bangladesh football and the changing face of World Cup fever," Dhaka Tribune — dhakatribune.com
• "Hamza Choudhury's Sheffield United return could be a game-changer for Bangladesh," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
• "State Minister Aminul explains why Bangladesh remain 181st in FIFA rankings," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net

24 Billion Eggs a Year: Inside Bangladesh's Poultry Industry

Bangladesh's poultry sector carries $3.2 billion in investment, grows at 15% a year and supports 8.5 million jobs, producing 24.4 billion eggs and 1.84 million tonnes of meat in 2025.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Bangladesh's poultry industry rarely features in discussions of the country's economy, which is odd given its size. It carries an estimated $3.2 billion (BDT 40,000 crore) in investment, is expanding at 15 percent a year, and supports approximately 8.5 million jobs — 2.5 million direct and 6 million indirect.

More than a million farmers and entrepreneurs derive their livelihood from it.

The Production Numbers

In 2025, Bangladesh produced:

• Approximately 24.4 billion eggs.
• 1.84 million metric tonnes of poultry meat.

Behind those figures sits a genetics and breeding layer that most people never see. More than 100 Parent Stock farms collectively produced about 1.05 billion broiler day-old chicks, 62 million layer chicks and 244 million Sonali and coloured-bird chicks in 2025.

That domestic breeding capacity matters strategically: a country that produces its own day-old chicks is not dependent on imports for the input that determines its entire meat and egg supply.

Self-Sufficiency in Meat

By FY2025-26, Bangladesh's livestock population passed 46 crore animals, and the country has achieved self-sufficiency in meat production.

For a nation of 170 million with limited land, meeting its own meat demand domestically is a substantial achievement — and one with direct macroeconomic value, since every tonne produced locally is a tonne not purchased with foreign exchange.

The wider livestock sub-sector employs about 20 percent of the population full-time and another 50 percent part-time — figures that reflect how many rural households keep some livestock alongside other work.

Dairy: The Segment With Room

Bangladesh has roughly 0.3 million dairy farms, and dairy is consistently identified alongside poultry as the sector's most promising growth area. Government support has focused on feed production and extension services.

Dairy is where the gap between production and consumption remains widest. Milk powder imports are substantial, and rising incomes among a middle class heading toward 34 million push dairy demand upward faster than domestic supply has matched.

That gap is a straightforward import-substitution opportunity — the same structure that makes agricultural machinery attractive, where local firms supply only 20 percent of demand.

Why the Sector Is Investable

Poultry has characteristics that suit Bangladesh particularly well.

Short production cycles. Broilers reach market weight in weeks, not years. Capital turns over quickly, which suits investors wary of long payback periods.

Domestic demand, not export dependence. Nearly all output is consumed at home, insulating the sector from the trade-preference changes that LDC graduation brings to export industries.

Adjacent industries. Poultry demands feed, veterinary services, cold chain, processing and packaging. Bangladesh's animal feed market is itself growing steadily, and each adjacent segment is a distinct investment.

Protein economics. As incomes rise, animal protein consumption rises faster than income. That relationship holds across virtually every developing economy and is among the most reliable demand curves in agribusiness.

The Risks

Poultry is also unforgiving. Disease outbreaks can destroy flocks and demand simultaneously. Feed costs — largely driven by imported maize and soy — determine margins and are exposed to global commodity swings. Cold chain gaps limit how far product can travel from where it is produced.

And the industry's own analysts note that growth has been uneven, with smallholders squeezed between input costs and farmgate prices during volatile periods.

Those are operational risks rather than structural ones. The underlying demand curve — 170 million people eating more protein as they get richer — is about as dependable as forecasting gets.

Related reading

• Bangladesh Is 25th in World Milk Production and 91% Self-Sufficient
• Bangladesh Is the World's Third-Largest Rice Producer
• Third in Vegetables, Sixth in Potatoes: Bangladesh's Farming Numbers
• Bangladesh Is Growing Coffee — 95 Tonnes and Counting

Sources

• "Bangladesh Poultry Industry: Unlocking Growth, Sustainability, and Export Potential," AgriLife24 — agrilife24.com
• "Growth, instability and future outlook of livestock population and products in Bangladesh," PLOS One — journals.plos.org
• "Bangladesh Animal Feed Market," IMARC Group — imarcgroup.com

Nearly a Quarter of Bangladesh's Banking Deposits Are Now Islamic

Bangladesh's Islamic banks held Tk 4.74 lakh crore in deposits by January 2026 — 22.34% of the banking system — while the government has raised Tk 19,000 crore through sovereign sukuk.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

By January 2026, Islamic banks in Bangladesh held total deposits of Tk 4,74,000 crore — a 9.34 percent increase year-on-year, and 22.34 percent of all deposits in the country's banking system.

Nearly one taka in every four held in a Bangladeshi bank now sits in a Shariah-compliant institution.

The Scale

• Tk 4,74,000 crore in deposits, 22.34 percent market share.
• Tk 5,85,000 crore in total investments including sukuk — up 11.07 percent on January 2025.
• 1,741 branches and 976 Islamic banking windows within conventional banks.
• 45,061 employees.
• Mudarabah profit-sharing arrangements account for 87.26 percent of Islamic deposits.

The window model is worth noting. Conventional banks operating 976 Shariah-compliant windows means the growth is not confined to dedicated Islamic banks — mainstream institutions have concluded there is enough demand to justify running parallel products.

How the Model Differs

Islamic finance prohibits riba — interest — and requires that returns derive from real economic activity and shared risk rather than from lending money at a fixed price.

In practice, a Mudarabah depositor is a partner rather than a creditor: the bank invests the funds and shares actual profits according to a pre-agreed ratio, and a loss is borne by the depositor rather than guaranteed away. That 87.26 percent of deposits sit in this structure indicates genuine adoption of the model rather than conventional products relabelled.

Sovereign Sukuk: Bonds That Build Things

The government has raised Tk 19,000 crore through four separate sovereign sukuk issuances to date, with more than Tk 6,000 crore (around $550 million) in further issuance planned for 2026.

The distinguishing feature is that these funds are tied to specific infrastructure projects. A conventional government bond raises money into general revenue; a sukuk must be backed by identifiable assets or projects, because returns have to derive from real economic activity rather than interest.

That structure produces an unusual side-effect: it enforces transparency about what borrowed money is being spent on. For a government financing the infrastructure programme covered across this site — Delta Plan works, waterway restoration, roads and power — asset-linked instruments are a natural fit.

Why This Matters Internationally

Global Islamic finance assets run into the trillions, concentrated in the Gulf and Malaysia. Institutional investors in those markets face a persistent shortage of Shariah-compliant instruments to allocate to.

Bangladesh — the world's third-largest Muslim-majority population, running a large infrastructure programme and issuing sovereign sukuk — is a natural destination for that capital. It connects directly to the deepening relationship with Gulf partners this publication has covered, including Bangladesh's inclusion in the Mecca Pact.

The domestic implication matters too. A financial system offering Shariah-compliant products brings savers into the formal banking system who would otherwise hold cash — which, alongside the mobile financial services revolution, is one of the two main channels of financial inclusion in Bangladesh.

What to Watch

Two questions will determine the sector's trajectory.

Governance. Bangladesh's banking sector as a whole has faced significant scrutiny over asset quality and governance, and Islamic banks are not exempt from that. Shariah compliance is a distinct question from prudential soundness, and investors should assess both separately.

Sukuk market depth. Four sovereign issuances is a start, not a market. A liquid secondary market and corporate sukuk issuance would be the signals that this has matured from a government funding tool into a genuine capital market.

Related reading

• Central Banks Bought 289 Tonnes of Gold in Three Months
• Extreme Poverty Is Projected to Fall Back to 10% of the World This Year
• The World's Largest NGO Was Founded in Bangladesh
• Fifty Years of Grameen: The Idea Bangladesh Gave the World

Sources

• "Islamic banks capture 22% of deposits with steady growth in financing," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
• "Key Highlights of the Islamic Finance Stability Report 2026," Islamic Economics Project — islamiceconomicsproject.com
• "Best Sukuk Bonds In Bangladesh For 2026," Traders Union — tradersunion.com

Bangladesh's Quiet Shoe Boom — and Why the Non-Leather Half Matters Most

Bangladesh exported $1.67 billion in leather goods and footwear in FY2024-25, with footwear at 72%. Non-leather footwear grew 30.25% — and the sector targets $5 billion within five years.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Footwear has become Bangladesh's second-largest export category after clothing, and it is growing considerably faster.

In FY2024-25, total leather goods and footwear exports reached $1.67 billion, with footwear alone accounting for 72 percent — roughly $1.19 billion. In 2024 the sector recorded 45 percent year-on-year growth.

The Split That Tells the Real Story

Break the numbers down and the direction becomes clear. Between July 2024 and May 2025:

• Leather footwear exports rose 28.96 percent to $620.17 million.
• Non-leather footwear exports rose 30.25 percent to $494.28 million.

Non-leather is growing faster and closing on leather in absolute terms — and that matters more than it first appears.

Why Non-Leather Is the Bigger Prize

The global footwear market has been shifting for years toward athletic, casual and synthetic shoes. That segment is now worth an estimated $280–300 billion globally and is growing faster than leather across every major consumption market.

Three forces drive it: sportswear has become everyday clothing; synthetic materials have improved to the point of outperforming leather on weight, water resistance and cost; and a growing share of consumers actively prefer non-animal materials.

For Bangladesh this is a favourable shift, because non-leather manufacturing plays to existing strengths.

Leather footwear depends on tanneries — capital-intensive, environmentally demanding, and a segment where Bangladesh has faced persistent compliance criticism. Non-leather footwear does not require a tannery at all. It requires cutting, moulding, stitching and assembly — the same industrial competences the country's garment sector has built over four decades, applied to a different product.

The $5 Billion Target

Government and industry are aligned on scaling exports to $5 billion annually within five years — roughly a threefold increase from current levels.

Unlike some national targets, this one has a visible mechanism. Global brands have been diversifying footwear sourcing away from concentration in a small number of countries, and Bangladesh offers the combination those buyers look for: labour cost, existing light-manufacturing capability, and a workforce already trained to Western buyer compliance standards.

What Has to Go Right

Three requirements determine whether the target is reachable.

Backward linkage. Footwear needs soles, adhesives, laces, textiles and synthetic uppers. Bangladesh imports most of these. Building domestic component supply shortens lead times and captures more value — the same challenge facing electronics.

Environmental compliance. The leather side's tannery record has cost the country buyers before. Given Bangladesh already leads the world in certified green factories, the template for fixing this exists domestically.

Post-LDC market access. Bangladesh graduates from Least Developed Country status in November 2026. The US trade agreement addresses the largest single market; European arrangements are still being worked through.

The Investment View

For an investor, footwear occupies an attractive position: a proven export category growing above 28 percent annually, an established industrial base, and a global demand shift moving toward exactly the sub-segment Bangladesh is best equipped to serve.

It is also more diversified than garments in end-market terms — athletic and casual footwear sells into sportswear, fashion and value retail simultaneously, which spreads exposure across buyer categories rather than concentrating it.

Related reading

• Bangladesh's Leather Exports Hit $1.23 Billion — With Far More Available
• Beyond Garments: The Seven Industries Reshaping Bangladesh's Exports
• Bangladesh Builds Ships for Europe — and Wants to Build More
• Bangladesh's Furniture Industry: 2.5 Million Jobs, $110 Million Exported

Sources

• "Leather & Footwear as The Next Export Frontier of Bangladesh," LightCastle Partners — lightcastlepartners.com
• "Leather exports reach $98.81m with 5.15% growth in July to April," Textile Today — textiletoday.com.bd
• "Bangladesh: A Global Leather Leader," Bangladesh Investment Development Authority — investbangladesh.gov.bd
• "Bangladesh's Leather & Footwear Industry: A Strategic Imperative for Economic Diversification," Abu Rayhan — rayhanabu.com

The World's Longest Beach and Almost No Visitors: Bangladesh's Tourism Gap

Bangladesh earned $440.47 million from 650,000 international tourists in 2024 — under 2% of Thailand's receipts, despite the world's longest beach and largest mangrove forest.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 7-minute read

Bangladesh has the longest natural sea beach in the world. It has the largest mangrove forest on earth, which is also the last stronghold of the Bengal tiger. It has hill districts, river systems, and archaeological sites spanning more than a thousand years.

In 2024 it received 650,000 international tourists and earned $440.47 million in tourism receipts.

For comparison: that is under 2 percent of Thailand's tourism receipts, and about 5 percent of Vietnam's — two countries with comparable natural assets and similar development trajectories.

The Arithmetic of the Gap

Receipts did grow — up 13.52 percent on the previous year — and the market is projected to expand at a compound annual rate of about 9.62 percent through 2029, reaching roughly $2.4 billion.

But the scale of what is being left on the table is easier to see through a simple calculation frequently cited in Bangladeshi tourism analysis: five million international visitors spending an average of $1,000 each would generate $5 billion in direct foreign revenue, with multiplier effects putting total economic impact at $15–20 billion.

Five million visitors is not a fantasy figure. It is a fraction of what neighbouring countries with fewer natural assets already receive.

The Three Products

Cox's Bazar — 120 kilometres of unbroken sand, now reachable by rail from Dhaka, which removed the single largest access barrier.

The Sundarbans — the world's largest mangrove forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and home to a tiger population that has been rising. Wildlife tourism of this kind commands premium prices globally.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts — hill terrain, lakes and distinct indigenous cultures, in a country most visitors assume is uniformly flat.

Together these form what the sector calls the core product. What they lack is not appeal but infrastructure and marketing.

Why the Sector Underperforms

Bangladeshi tourism analysts are consistent about the constraints, and none of them concern the attractions themselves:

• Brand absence. Bangladesh does not appear in most international travellers' consideration set at all. Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka have spent decades and considerable budgets on destination marketing; Bangladesh has not.
• Accommodation quality. International-standard hotel capacity outside Dhaka is thin, which caps the segment of the market that can be served.
• Access and connectivity. Improving — the Cox's Bazar rail link and the Third Terminal at Dhaka airport both address this directly — but historically a real deterrent.
• Visa and arrival friction. Process matters enormously in a market where the alternative destination is one form-filling exercise away.
• Policy fragmentation. Domestic commentary has repeatedly called for a coherent national tourism policy rather than dispersed initiatives.

The Investment Angle

For investors, an under-served tourism market with world-class assets is an unusual proposition, because the demand-side risk is lower than it looks. The attractions already exist and require no capital to create — the gap is entirely in the service layer built around them.

The obvious opportunities are hospitality (international-standard hotels and resorts, particularly at Cox's Bazar and the Sundarbans approaches), tour operations and eco-lodges, transport and transfer services, and the destination marketing capability the country currently lacks.

Domestic tourism, meanwhile, is already substantial and growing — lakhs of Bangladeshi visitors travel to Cox's Bazar during peak periods. A middle class heading toward 34 million people is generating domestic leisure demand fast enough to support hospitality investment on its own, with international visitors as upside rather than a precondition.

The Honest Framing

Tourism is the sector where the distance between Bangladesh's assets and its results is widest. Nothing about the beach, the forest or the hills has changed; what has been missing is the infrastructure, the marketing and the policy coherence to convert them.

Those are solvable problems, and unusually, they are solvable with money and administration rather than with anything that has to be invented.

Related reading

• The Sundarbans Tiger Count Is Rising Again
• Seventeen New Economic Zones and the Race for Investment
• Hilsa: How Bangladesh Protects the World's Favourite Fish
• Bangladesh Cut Cyclone Deaths 100-Fold. Here's How

Sources

• "World Tourism Day: Tourism potential remains untapped," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
• "Our tourism needs a policy reset," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
• "Tourism holds vast potential, but sector plagued by challenges," Dhaka Tribune — dhakatribune.com
• "Bangladesh Tourism & Hospitality Analysis," BD Policy Lab — bdpolicylab.com

Second in the World: What the FAO's 2026 Fisheries Report Says About Bangladesh

The FAO's State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2026 places Bangladesh second globally in inland capture fisheries with 1.41 million tonnes, and fifth in aquaculture production.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

The Food and Agriculture Organization published its State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2026 in June, drawing on 2024 data. It confirms a position Bangladesh has now held for several consecutive years.

In inland capture fisheries — fish caught in rivers, lakes, floodplains and other freshwater bodies — Bangladesh ranks second in the world, landing 1.41 million tonnes in 2024. Only India catches more, at 2.2 million tonnes. Bangladesh's share is roughly 11.5 percent of global inland production.

Fifth in Aquaculture Too

The report also places Bangladesh fifth globally in aquaculture animal production, accounting for about 3 percent of the world total. The ranking above it: China at 56 percent, India at 12, Indonesia at 6 and Vietnam at 5.

Global fisheries and aquaculture production reached a record 235 million tonnes in 2024 — 195 million tonnes of aquatic animals plus 40 million tonnes of algae. Bangladesh's positions are shares of that total.

Why a Small Country Produces So Much Fish

The answer is geography combined with policy.

Bangladesh sits on the largest river delta on earth. Roughly 24,000 kilometres of rivers cross the country, and each monsoon a substantial portion of the land floods — creating seasonal wetlands that function as vast natural fish nurseries. The haor basins of the north-east and the floodplains along the major rivers are among the most biologically productive freshwater systems anywhere.

What converts that natural endowment into sustained output is management. Bangladesh operates seasonal closures — most prominently the 22-day hilsa breeding ban each October and a longer closure protecting juvenile fish — paired with food-grain support for affected fishing households.

That combination of restriction plus compensation is what makes closures enforceable. It is also why Bangladesh's inland catch has held up while comparable fisheries elsewhere in South Asia have declined.

What Fish Means Here

The Bengali expression maache bhaate Bangali — "fish and rice make a Bengali" — is not decorative. Fish is the primary animal protein for the large majority of the population, and inland fisheries supply most of it.

That gives these rankings a nutritional significance that pure economics misses. A country that produces 11.5 percent of the world's inland catch is a country feeding itself protein domestically rather than importing it — a meaningful position for a nation of 170 million with limited foreign exchange.

The sector also employs enormous numbers of people, most of them in small-scale operations: individual fishers, pond farmers, processors, ice suppliers and traders spread across every district with water.

Where Growth Comes From Next

Inland capture fisheries are, by nature, close to their ecological ceiling. You cannot catch substantially more wild fish from the same waters without depleting them — which is precisely what the closures are designed to prevent.

Growth therefore has to come from aquaculture, where Bangladesh sits fifth and where the ceiling is technological rather than ecological. Better hatchery genetics, improved feed conversion, disease management and pond productivity are all improvable, and the gap between average and best-practice yields in Bangladeshi aquaculture remains wide.

The processing side is the other opportunity. As covered in our report on food processing, Bangladesh produces far more raw fish than it processes into higher-value product — and processing is where export earnings are captured.

The Climate Question

The threat to this position is environmental rather than commercial. Inland fisheries depend on flood timing, water volume and river connectivity — all of which climate change and upstream water management directly affect.

Reduced dry-season river flow, siltation and floodplain encroachment each shrink the habitat that produces the catch. That is one reason the Delta Plan 2100's water management provisions matter well beyond flood protection: the same river system that has to be defended against also has to be kept productive.

Related reading

• Third in Vegetables, Sixth in Potatoes: Bangladesh's Farming Numbers
• Bangladesh Is a Top-10 Mango Producer and Now Ships to 38 Countries
• Bangladesh Is 25th in World Milk Production and 91% Self-Sufficient
• Jute's Second Chance — and the Bag That Replaces Plastic

Sources

• "Bangladesh retains top global position in inland fisheries," BSS News — bssnews.net
• "Bangladesh retains top global position in inland fisheries," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
• "Bangladesh holds 2nd place worldwide in inland fish production: FAO," Dhaka Stream — dhakastream.net
• "Aquaculture growth potential in Bangladesh — WAPI factsheet," FAO — openknowledge.fao.org

Where Bangladesh Actually Ranks in the World

Second in inland fisheries, third in vegetables, second in garments, first in jute exports, second in green ship recycling — a verified list of where Bangladesh ranks globally.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 8-minute read

Bangladesh is usually described by what it lacks. A more useful exercise is to list, with sources, where the country actually places against the rest of the world.

The list is longer than most people — including many Bangladeshis — expect.

Food and Agriculture

2nd — Inland capture fisheries. The FAO's State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2026 places Bangladesh second globally, with 1.41 million tonnes landed from inland open waters in 2024 — about 11.5 percent of world production. Only India catches more.

3rd — Vegetable production.

3rd — Rice production. Behind only China and India, in a country a fraction of their size.

5th — Aquaculture. Bangladesh accounts for about 3 percent of global aquaculture animal production, behind China (56%), India (12%), Indonesia (6%) and Vietnam (5%).

6th — Potato production. Output is projected at 11.4 million tonnes in 2026, up from 10.3 million in 2021.

10th — Tropical fruit production.

~80%+ — Global hilsa supply. Bangladesh produces the overwhelming majority of the world's hilsa, protected by a seasonal fishing ban regime and holding Geographical Indication status.

Manufacturing and Exports

2nd — Ready-made garment exports. The position the country is best known for, and still holds.

1st — Green factories. Of the world's 100 highest-rated LEED-certified factories, 69 are Bangladeshi, including 18 of the top 20. The country has 284 LEED-certified garment factories, 121 of them Platinum — and the single highest-scoring garment factory certification recorded anywhere.

1st — Jute exports (and 2nd in jute production).

3rd — Bicycle exports to the European Union. Eighth-largest globally, and second among non-EU suppliers after Taiwan — ahead of China. Germany alone takes 46 percent.

2nd — Green ship recycling. 17 IMO-authorised yards, behind only Turkey, with green-certified yards rising from four in 2024 to 25.

People and Services

1st — Off-grid solar deployment. The IDCOL programme installed 4.1 million solar home systems, reaching about 20 million people — the largest programme of its kind ever run.

2nd — Online freelancing workforce. Roughly a million freelancers selling services internationally.

Among the largest — UN peacekeeping contributors. Around 6,300 Bangladeshi peacekeepers serve across ten UN missions.

What the Pattern Shows

Read together, these positions describe a specific kind of economy.

Bangladesh converts land and water into food with extraordinary efficiency. Third in rice and vegetables, second in inland fisheries, fifth in aquaculture — from a country of roughly 148,000 square kilometres, much of it flooded for part of every year. That is among the most productive uses of limited territory anywhere on earth.

It competes on trained labour, not just cheap labour. Second in garments is a scale achievement. First in green factory certification is a standards achievement, and a considerably harder one.

It has quietly diversified. Bicycles, ship recycling, ceramics and the other sectors covered here are all positions built while international attention stayed fixed on clothing.

The Rankings That Are Missing

Honesty requires the other column. Bangladesh does not rank highly on per-capita income, on ease of doing business, on university rankings, or on energy reliability. Its vaccine industry cannot export at scale for want of a regulatory certification. Its tourism receipts are under 2 percent of Thailand's.

Those gaps are real, and several of them are the binding constraints on everything above.

But a country that leads the world in green factory certification, off-grid solar and jute exports, sits second in inland fisheries, garments and ship recycling, and third in rice, vegetables and EU bicycle supply, is not accurately described as a country that only makes cheap clothing.

Related reading

• Bangladesh Is on Track to Be the World's 9th Consumer Market
• How Bangladesh Won 118,813 Sq Km of Sea Without a Shot
• Padma Bridge: Tk 3,000 Crore in Tolls and a Region Reconnected
• World Food Prices Hit Their Highest Level Since 2022

Sources

• "Bangladesh retains top global position in inland fisheries," BSS News, citing FAO State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2026 — bssnews.net
• "Bangladesh among world's top 10 in 13 sectors," Prothom Alo — en.prothomalo.com
• "Total number of LEED-certified RMG factories now 284," New Age — newagebd.net
• "Bangladesh ranks second globally with 17 IMO-authorised ship recycling yards," Hellenic Shipping News — hellenicshippingnews.com
• "Bangladesh Solar Home Systems Provide Clean Energy for 20 Million People," World Bank — worldbank.org