Exciting Bangladesh business opportunities exist, albeit, tied to considerable risk. Its developing, market based economy has experienced a respectable growth rate over a sustained period thanks in large part to a vast human resource base, rich agricultural land, relatively abundant water supply, substantial reserves of natural gas, and strategic natural sea ports sitting between South Asian and Southeast Asian markets. Agriculture, an important part of the economy, produces significant quantities of rice, tea, potato, onion, mustard, mango, pineapple and other tropical fruit. Although two thirds of Bangladeshis are farmers, more than three quarters of Bangladesh’s export earnings come from the garment and textile industry. In order to enhance economic growth in textiles, the government set up several export processing zones to attract foreign business investment. Another significant contributor to the economy is the widespread propagation of microfinance which makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral.

Obstacles to Bangladesh business ventures include frequent cyclones and floods, inefficient state-owned enterprises, mismanaged port facilities, inefficient use of energy resources (ie. natural gas), insufficient power supplies, slow implementation of economic reforms, political infighting and corruption.