Bangladesh has achieved an economic miracle in the past 20 years. A few decades ago it was one of the poorest countries on earth, stricken by famine and flood. Now it ranks as middle-income. Vietnam has done the same; Cambodia is close behind. Their spectacular growth shows fear of “premature deindustrialisation” is misplaced as a new generation of manufacturing powers rise to shape the 21st century.
What Bangladesh has done is all the more remarkable because the world has taken so little notice. Growth has steadily accelerated to more than 6 per cent, driven by the classic cheap-labour starter industry of textiles. It is now the world’s second-largest garment exporter. Powerful gears of growth have begun to turn. The textile factories employ millions of young women, giving them economic power, prompting rural families to invest in education and triggering a demographic dividend.
The growth of these new manufacturing centres is one of the most exciting changes in the global economy. They offer new markets for consumer goods, huge opportunities for investors and a way to lift millions of people out of poverty. Yet even as Bangladesh takes off, there are doubts about whether others can follow.