Bangladesh’s success in the global apparel value chain following the expiration of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement in 2005 deserves study to understand how a least developed country can become a major source of apparels within a short period of time. This article shows that even under a quasi-hierarchical governance structure, suppliers in Bangladesh have made significant progress in economic upgrading, particularly process and product upgrading. Competitive pressure linked to the ‘open sourcing’ of apparels has caused leading firms to ease conditionalities on the production process. Preferential access to major markets, timely responses to buyers’ changing demands, favourable policies related to the import of raw materials, production and export of apparels and new labour-related policies have facilitated economic upgrading. Suppliers have accordingly benefited from substantial investment in productive capacity, technological know-how and workers’ skills. Further upgrading would require more investment in firm-level productivity and improvement in physical and social compliance.
This paper analyzes the marketing system of potato in Bangladesh, especially the economic relations among farmers, traders, and cold storage owners and elucidates the structural changes in the rural economy through a village study. Investment in the potato market is capital-intensive and risky, and is often considered to be vertically linked. The present study shows that farmers and cold storage owners do not invest in trading because of lack of time and "skill" to deal with urban traders. Besides, farmers face capital constraints and the amount of potatoes produced is too small to meet the demand of urban areas. Cold storage owners are confronted with increasing competition, which forces them to attempt to reach the storage capacity. Traders invest in the risky potato-storage business. The return from it is declining but still high due to the "cheap" credit supply from the cold storage owners. There is no tied relation among the market agents any more.
Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in Asian Development Bank InstituteThe Working Paper series is a continuation of the formerly named Discussion Paper series; the numbering of the papers continued without interruption or change. ADBI's working papers reflect initial ideas on a topic and are posted online for discussion. ADBI encourages readers to post their comments on the main page for each working paper (given in the citation below). Some working papers may develop into other forms of publication. The authors would like to thank the paper reviewers and participants at the meeting organized by ADB in Manila, 6-7 November 2013. They also would like to express their sincere appreciation for the support provided by the ADBI staff who helped in preparing this manuscript for publication.The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of ADBI, ADB, its Board of Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms.Working papers are subject to formal revision and correction before they are finalized and considered published.Asian Development Bank Institute Kasumigaseki Building 8F 3-2-5 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-6008, Japan AbstractEconomic integration is being inhibited by the poor state of transport connectivity between Bangladesh, and South Asia and Southeast Asia. This study reviews connectivity initiatives of Bangladesh and the two neighboring regions and proposes ways to deepen regional and interregional connectivity. Since the early 1990s, as a consequence of trade-led growth strategy, South Asia and Southeast Asia have emerged as important economic partners of Bangladesh both in terms of export destination and import sourcing. However, constraints "at the border" and "behind the border" have tended to undermine the prospects of reaping the benefits accruing from closer economic cooperation.There is now an increasing realization among policymakers in Bangladesh of the importance of transport integration as an effective tool for market integration and also for attracting efficiency-enhancing and market-seeking investment. This changed perspective has been reflected in Bangladesh's long-term development policies. This study identifies cross-border initiatives with Bangladesh's involvemen...
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