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.

Chittagong port — the outlet for goods made in Bangladesh's export processing zones. Photo: Moheen Reeyad, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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.

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

bepza exports (1)

BEPZA Zones Hit $8.41 Billion — 17.5% of All Bangladesh Exports