| Hitting the beach in Bangladesh
BANGLADESH is probably one of the last places in Asia people would expect to see a thriving beachside resort with luxury hotels. 6 billion to the United States, according to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Smaller hotels and guesthouses are proliferating, and property prices have risen sharply. Economists at Standard Chartered Bank believe that Bangladesh could join what have been called the "7 percent club" of economies that expand at least 7 percent annually for an extended period --allowing their economies to double every decade. HSBC included Bangladesh in a group of 26 economies -- together with China, India and lots of Latin American and African countries -- where it expects particularly strong growth. The gradual shift in global production to low-cost countries, from developed economies in Europe and North America, is driving much of that growth. But Cox's Bazar has changed a great deal over the past five years, Mr. "Properties are popping up like daisies, and the development is moving further and further down along the beach. The speed and scale of it is unprecedented for Bangladesh. The murder this month of Aminul Islam, a prominent labor rights activist, apparently in retaliation for his advocacy work, put a spotlight on the low wages and poor working conditions that prevail in burgeoning sectors like the garment industry. Yet despite this, the Bangladeshi economy has managed to grow more than 6 percent a year for much of the last decade. "Domestic demand is growing and becoming an important driver of economic activity. Bangladesh overtook Vietnam and Indonesia in 2011 to become the second-largest source of such products for Li agriculture sector mean that domestic demand is growing. For now, Bangladesh's manufacturing prowess is primarily focused on the garment sector, which has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry that employs 3. The town is a long way from turning into Canc"n, Mexico, or the C"te d'Azur in France. Green Delta Housing, a Bangladeshi construction company, is working on several developments. "A middle class is gradually forming," said Zahid Hossain, principal economist at the Asian Development Bank in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Dhaka, whose population has ballooned to about 15 million, now has car showrooms and a small but growing number of high-end international hotels. In Cox's Bazar, construction sites pockmark the once laid-back beachfront. Foreign direct investment in Bangladesh has languished at about $1 billion a year -- less than what Albania or Belarus each receive, and about one-tenth of foreign investments in Thailand or Malaysia. The total nearly doubled from four years earlier, and McKinsey forecast that the garment industry would grow by as much as 9 percent a year over the next decade. Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, which already operates a Radisson in Dhaka, is planning to open two hotels in Cox's Bazar in 2015. Bangladesh has seen particularly strong growth in the last few years, partly as a result of rising labor costs in China, where manufacturing is moving into higher-margin activities like product design. |
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Hitting the beach in Bangladesh
