Business Entrepreneurship · Classes 9-10 · Chapter 1

Business Environment in Bangladesh.

Cloth woven in Sonargaon once sailed to Europe and Africa, and ships built at Chattogram were talked about as far away as Rome. How easy is it to do business in the same land today? The book answers through six environments.

1. A region whose name travelled

Bangladesh is an agro based developing country. Even so, the share of business, meaning industry and commerce, in the economy grows every year.

This region was once famous across the world for trade. Sonargaon made its name with muslin cloth, and Chattogram with its sea port and ship building. Muslin made in Sonargaon and the villages around it was exported to countries in Europe and Africa.

Allured by the name this region had for business, the Arabs set up trading links and came here in groups. Trade here competed hard with the historically famous Tamrolipto and Shaptagram.

The Portuguese came and began trading here in the sixteenth century AD, as the Bangla version puts it; the English version prints the year as “1600 AD”. They named Shaptagram Porto Piqueno, the small port, and Chattogram Porto Grando, the big port.

Shaptagram, in West Bengal, was a well known trading port. Its link with the Bay of Bengal ran along the Bhagirathi river and the Sharswati canal.

Sea-going ships were built here. The Chinese traveller Ma Huan wrote that the Roman Emperor had ships made at Chattogram. There were dockyards at Halishahar and Patenga, and local merchants owned hundreds of ships. W. W. Hunter says the dockyards kept their standing until 1875.

See the region's trading story on one sketch map. Drag the time and watch which place lights up.

Now match them yourself: which place was famous for what.

Now run the names and the dates once more on four small cards.

2. Six environments in Bangladesh today

In today's competitive world it is hard to grow and survive in business unless the elements of the business environment are supportive. So the book goes through the six environments one by one: which helps, which holds back.

Most natural elements in Bangladesh are supportive. Rivers wash almost every part of the country, which gives agro raw materials. There are natural gas, coal, lime stone, hard rock and crude oil, and rich forest resources. Being river-washed and sea-bound, the country also suits the fisheries industry.

The economic side has strengths: an effective money and banking system, the contribution of agriculture and industry, the savings and investment mentality of people, and government assistance. It has constraints too: too little capital for the need, fewer banking and loan facilities for villagers, administrative complexity, harassment by middlemen, and rising prices.

Most social elements are positive. The people are liberal, industrious and creative. The past shows it in muslin and ship building, the present in the Jamdani saree and ship building.

The political environment helps through sound law and order, favourable industry and trade policy, and good relations with neighbours. It hinders through political instability, frequent changes of government, hartal, strikes and a lack of business friendly policy. Investors, local and foreign, are discouraged by these.

Some legal elements are modern, but many are old. Strict enforcement of environment-protection and consumer law, new laws friendly to industry and investment, and firm action against corruption, nepotism and tolling can secure better business.

Technological development makes production easier, cuts its cost and raises both the quantity and the quality of goods. In Bangladesh the technological elements are positive in many fields.

Here are all six in one grid. Tap any cell of a row to open its full account.

To build a supportive environment for industry and trade, government effort alone is not enough; all of us have to come forward. That is the book's last word.

3. Check yourself

Three questions in the exam's style.

The second works on an environment's elements.

Think before you answer the last one.

The whole note on seven cards.

Source: Business Entrepreneurship, Classes 9-10 (NCTB), Chapter 1 “Introduction to Business”, the “Business Environment in Bangladesh” part.