170 Million Buyers, Almost All Imported: Bangladesh's Electronics Opening

Bangladesh's 2026 budget backs domestic electronics manufacturing, investors are committing to facilities at Mirsarai, and 170 million consumers currently buy mostly imported devices.

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

Bangladesh's industrial story has been dominated by a single sector for forty years. Garments built the export base, the employment base and the country's reputation as a manufacturing location — and that concentration is now widely recognised as a strategic vulnerability.

Electronics is the most credible candidate for the second pillar, and the conditions for it have quietly assembled.

The Demand Side Already Exists

This is what distinguishes electronics from a speculative diversification play: the customers are already here.

Bangladesh has 18.84 crore mobile connections and 13.36 crore internet subscribers. Consumer spending runs at roughly $130 billion a year, growing about 6 percent, from a middle class that expanded from 19 million in 2020 toward a projected 34 million by 2025.

Every phone, television, air conditioner, refrigerator and laptop that population buys is overwhelmingly imported today. A domestic manufacturer serving that demand does not need to win export orders before it has a business — the domestic market alone supports substantial scale.

Policy Is Actively Pointing Here

The FY2026-27 national budget included explicit support for electronics manufacturing among its technology priorities, alongside the elevation of ICT into the government's top ten strategic national priorities.

The 2026 incentive update extends tax holidays specifically for automated manufacturing — precisely the category modern electronics assembly falls into. Combined with duty exemption on imported machinery and components, the effective tax position for a new electronics plant is among the most favourable available.

Investment Is Already Committing

The clearest signal is capital, not policy. MEP Hi-Tech is investing Tk 200 crore in an electrical and electronics manufacturing facility at the National Special Economic Zone in Mirsarai.

That location matters. Mirsarai sits beside Chattogram port, which is where imported components arrive and finished goods depart — the essential geography for assembly operations that import parts and ship products.

Why Assembly First, Components Later

Realistic expectations matter here. Bangladesh is not about to fabricate semiconductors; that requires capital and process expertise measured in decades.

The achievable entry point is assembly and sub-assembly: importing components and building finished devices locally. This is exactly how electronics manufacturing began in every country that now leads it. Assembly builds the workforce, the supplier relationships, the quality systems and the logistics competence on which deeper local content is subsequently constructed.

Bangladesh already demonstrates it can hold international quality standards at scale — the country holds 69 of the world's 100 highest-rated LEED-certified factories and exports ships to European buyers. The industrial discipline transfers.

The Export Angle

Two developments make Bangladeshi-assembled electronics exportable rather than purely domestic.

First, the US–Bangladesh trade agreement establishes defined tariff terms with the world's largest consumer market.

Second, manufacturers worldwide are diversifying production away from single-country concentration. Bangladesh offers lower labour costs than most alternatives, a large domestic market to absorb initial output, and a tariff profile distinct from China's — the combination that relocation decisions are actually made on.

The Honest Constraints

• Power quality. Electronics assembly is sensitive to supply interruption and voltage variation in ways garment production is not. Backup and conditioning are non-optional capital items.
• Component supply chain. Local component suppliers barely exist. Early entrants import nearly everything, which raises working capital requirements.
• Specialised skills. Surface-mount assembly technicians and electronics QA engineers are scarce. Budget for training programmes, not just recruitment.
• Established competition. Vietnam, India and Thailand have a decade or more of head start in supplier ecosystems.

The Balance

Electronics in Bangladesh is an earlier-stage proposition than garments, with a thinner supporting ecosystem and real infrastructure caveats.

It also has something garments never had at this stage: a domestic market of 170 million people already buying the product, currently supplied almost entirely from abroad. That is an unusually forgiving starting position for a new manufacturing sector.

Related reading

• Walton Sells Refrigerators in 55 Countries. It Started as an Importer.
• Vehicles and Heavy Industry: Bangladesh's Next Frontier
• Bangladesh Is the World's 17th Largest Two-Wheeler Market — and Builds 80% Locally
• Why Garment Buyers and Investors Choose Bangladesh

Sources

• "Govt unveils wide-ranging allocations for ICT, startups, innovation sectors," National Budget 2026-2027, BSS News — bssnews.net
• "MEP Hi-Tech to invest Tk 200cr in Mirsarai Economic Zone," BSS News — bssnews.net
• "Bangladesh: The Surging Consumer Market Nobody Saw Coming," BCG via British Council — britishcouncil.org
• "Tax Holiday Incentives for Industries in Bangladesh," OGR Legal — resource.ogrlegal.com