Bangladesh, home to about 170 million people, is one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, with a constant annual GDP growth rate of around 6% over the last two decades. It dominates the global RMG market in 3rd position, right after China and Vietnam, earning USD30 Bn (83% of total export earnings) as of 2018. As the country develops, an additional 11 million jobs are expected to be established by 2025. Connectivity has reached its peak, with 100% electricity penetration, 97% mobile phone penetration (166 Mn) and 58% internet penetration (100 Mn). Consequently, startup activity has surged as local and global businesses emerge with innovation and new business models to satisfy unmet demand across the country. The government of Bangladesh has also taken national and regional initiatives, such as bootcamps, hackathons, co-working spaces, accelerators, and incubator programs, realizing nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship is an essential key driver of economic growth.
Bangladesh has weaved an extraordinary tale of incredible growth and success in the last 50 years of independence, laced with narratives of the remarkable innovativeness of its people and the country’s ability to adapt to the changing needs of time that can inspire other nations finding themselves in similar trajectory.
The result of all these successes is the nation’s graduation from the Least Development Country (LDC) status to a middle-income nation, which created new opportunities for the country. However, as the country plans for the next 50 years, part of which is the graduation into the middle-income status and realizing Vision 2041, by when Bangladesh aspires to become a developed nation, we as a nation need to take a hard look at our growth prospects and strategies to make the most of these newfound opportunities.
These new opportunities would also bring new challenges with them. First of all, as we graduate into a middle-income country, the benefits we are currently enjoying in our present status would be taken away from us, and we would be required to develop our competitive edge further to move ahead in the race. We would be required to focus on creating new trade avenues, where we would be exposed to greater competition.
As Bangladesh prepares to tread the new territories of middle-income economy, we must formulate our strategies with prudence—analyze our current strength as a labor-intensive manufacturing economy and think of the value addition we will be making to shift to high value-add, innovative economy. With a GDP of over $409 billion (€362 billion), Bangladesh currently has the world’s 37th largest economy and forecasts suggest that the size of the economy could double by 2030. While it was primarily an agricultural economy in 1971, the composition has changed over the decades, with industry and services now accounting for the lion’s share of economic output.
In the era of transformation and development Bangladesh is building a strong communication network through transformative infrastructure development. In the uprising the structural development Padma Bridge, Karnaphuli Tunnel, Metro Rail are a few projects in the transformation of the country. To develop the power sector Bangladesh is Poised to work on the Rooppur Power Plant. In short, the mega projects are going to be key to unlock and pave the future development of the country.
In the development trajectory many other factors are playing an important role. Starting from Agriculture to export all the segmentations are crucial for the growth of the country. Development and advancement in the production of crops, fisheries, aquaculture, poultry and dairy and also in the financial inclusion for farmers agriculture has taken the center stage by employing 41% of the population and contributing 14.7% to the GDP. In the export industry exports from Bangladesh have recorded an annual average growth rate of about 11 per cent since 2001. Bangladesh exported US$40.5 billion in 2018-19 but that declined to US$33.7 billion in 2019-20, a decline of 16.8 per cent from the previous year due slowdown in global trade flows caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO) world merchandise trade was set to plummet between 13 and 32 per cent in 2020. However, exports bounced back in 2020-21 to US$ 38.75 billion. The Bangladesh government has set a target for exports amounting to US$51 billion in the fiscal year 2021-22 (FE, 18 July). This is heavily dependent on the RMG sector and other related private industries who are making proper accordance to the export market of the country and helping the economy while contributing to the economy.
In short to recap all the achievements that Bangladesh has been portraying development strides in job friendly growth momentum, economic resilience, export income and diversification, macroeconomic stability, structural reforms, global growth-based agenda, poverty reduction, healthcare, education, agriculture, communication and digitalization. All these developments are paving the way forward for the next 50 years.
Today, the world’s societies face severe economic and social challenges. The economic downturn has led to reduced growth, rising unemployment, and soaring economic conditions. To recover, countries need to find new and sustainable sources of growth. Innovation—the introduction of a new or significantly improved product, process, or method—holds the key to boosting economic growth and productivity. Innovation has much broader implications than Research & Development and is influenced by a wider range of factors. Innovation can help accelerate economic recovery and put Bangladesh on a path to sustainable and greener growth. Innovation will allow Bangladesh to discover opportunities that exist or are likely to emerge in time, to focus on existing business processes and practices that improve efficiency, to find potential customers, to minimize wastage, and to increase profits.
Innovation is a key driver of technology development and economic growth. It provides a means of satisfying the demands of the current market and the potential needs of future markets. Innovation is achieved through more effective products, processes, services, or technologies that are readily available to the current market. There is an increased awareness and recognition among national policy makers about innovation as a key factor in economic growth.
Innovation has different implications for different economies such as developing, emerging, and developed. It is important that we develop tools to measure innovation across diverse economies. Various financial, industrial, economic, and social indicators are associated with trends in innovation.
Innovation is a crucial factor in the national progress. The application of advanced technology along with entrepreneurship and innovation approaches in creation of goods and services results in translation of scientific and technological advances into productive economic activity. This contributes to economic growth when aided by environmental and regulatory structures. Policy makers look to regulatory framework as an instrument to promote innovation. As it stands now, research on innovation is fragmented. A general framework of analysis and greater coordination of research efforts will serve to offer a holistic view of the phenomenon, starting from its inputs to its economic and social impact. Innovation has become a multidimensional concept; it is not just about producing new products. It is also about services, technical standards, business models, and processes.
Innovation and economic growth are intricately associated. Each drives the other, thus, innovation is a key component in a government’s Development agenda. Economic indicators have an impact on innovation at various levels: firm, state, and country. In this study, we focus on country-level innovation—specifically, technological innovation represented by patents.
Moreover, one of the important lessons of the past two decades has been the pivotal role of innovation in economic development. The build-up of innovation capacities has played a central role in the growth dynamics of successful developing countries. These countries have recognized that innovation is not just about high-technology products and that innovation capacity has to be built early in the development process in order to possess the learning capacities that will allow “catch up” to happen. They also need innovation capacity and local innovations to address challenges specific to their local contexts (e.g., tropical diseases). Ultimately a successful development strategy has to build extensive innovation capacities to foster growth.
So as a newly emerged developing nation, Innovation needs to be at the core of everything. So why is Innovation in Bangladesh important?
“Innovation-based economic development” should be employed in Bangladesh to to help create a business climate and to enable an environment where an economy based on innovation and technology can thrive. There is no single recipe for successful innovation-based development, yet there are critical ingredients. By adapting to the crucial elements Bangladesh will thrive and move ahead with the desired development goals that it has set. So why innovation at the core of Bangladesh is required?
- Impacts Economic Growth
Every business is important for the economy because it provides services to consumers. Without innovation, companies would not be able to grow fast enough to stay afloat. It helps businesses overcome obstacles of growth by thinking of new ways to address potential problems. It allows them to create new products and services, expand their customer base, open up new markets, or improve existing ones. By increasing the chances of survival, innovation will also create future jobs by developing new technologies. According to the World Economic Forum’s report, by 2022, almost 133 million new employment opportunities will be available due to AI, automation, and robotics. Innovation is essential to find efficient solutions for cost-cutting exercises, which help the economy flourish.
- Flourishes Education
The future of education depends on innovation as well. Educational institutions around the world are now providing students with hands-on experience. This helps them learn better and work towards building careers that interest them. Innovation changes how we learn things instead of just reading about them in textbooks or online sources. Students are allowed to do practical activities that help them apply what they’ve learned to real-life situations. Innovation will help broaden the narrative of existing education in building future leaders with the knowledge of creating inspiring and new businesses.
- Works With Technology
The human race is always trying to do better than before. This feeling has led us to greater ways to achieve our goals. Innovation doesn’t necessarily mean coming up with something original. It is more of finding ways to use what’s already available, in a better way of combining different ideas, to create something completely new. According to a study, over half of Americans feel that technological progress has made life better in the last 50 years. Innovation can work with existing technology instead of creating something completely new. It helps people discover how to use resources more efficiently and implement them in daily life.
- Boosts Creativity & Confidence
Creativity also helps reduce the fear of making mistakes which will lead people to do great things on their own. It encourages people to take more risks that may end up in failure but it’s still worth it because these failures eventually pave the way for success. Apart from creativity, innovation fosters confidence in people. They will be motivated to continue moving forward and finding new ways of doing things. Cultivating creativity can help businesses bring better solutions to the table. Many small businesses have been able to make a name for themselves through innovation and their willingness to take risks.
- Creates Better Products & Services
Spurred by the desire to come up with a top-notch product, innovation allows us to create a better version of what we already have in the market. New products and services are created with the customer in mind so that their needs are met, whether it is through ease of use, more convenience, or an added benefit. Besides being beneficial to customers, improving existing products can also help businesses remain competitive. By making slight changes to a product instead of completely reinventing it, organizations can reduce costs and time to market while still giving themselves a competitive edge. Eventually impacting in the economy of the country.
- Innovation Determines Success
Innovation is key to success – the more a country is prone to innovation the more thriving and developed it becomes. In the global competitive arena standing out with new, improved and innovative solutions will determine a countries success towards overall development. It could be in any aspect related to infrastructure, agriculture, healthcare or even related product or services. Innovation in the mentioned segmentations will help develop the traits of further success and as a whole impacting the countries development strides. 
- Combats Social Threats In Society
The rapid development of technology has led to the rise of many social issues. Innovation is important in this regard – it can create new opportunities that aren’t harmful to society. Hunger, poverty, pollution, or ostracism – you name it, innovation is crucial to fight the evils of society and make a difference. Innovative thinking helps people come up with solutions for problems without harming others or the environment. It combats social issues that would otherwise harm society.
- Necessary For Sustainability
Innovation helps to reduce an effect on the environment. Everything from recycling, reducing pollution, and harvesting natural resources more efficiently contributes to innovation. Innovation encourages people to try new things instead of repeating what they’ve always been doing. When a process becomes a routine, productivity decreases, and there’s a lack of motivation in the workplace. Innovation is crucial for sustainability because it helps people discover better ways to reduce their carbon footprint and become more environmentally aware. Without innovation, the world would suffer from a lack of natural resources and extreme pollution that could harm everyone involved.
- Next To Prosperity
Innovation has the power to shape and define success and gives people the freedom to do what they love. It leads them to be more creative while increasing their confidence levels. A country’s growth largely depends on its citizens’ creativity and ingenuity. Countries that encourage innovation will prosper while the others will fall behind in terms of development, security, education, employment opportunities, etc. Above all, it is essential for survival which makes innovation one of the most important aspects of our lives.
- Innovation Brings Together A Community
When a community works together towards a common goal, that is when innovation can be brought to life. It helps people learn from each other and connect with others who share the same interests as them. Innovation allows those who are passionate and continue to come up with ideas that make the world a better place. This eventually helps communities become more knowledgeable and useful to one another. It has the power to bring communities together, which can help develop us as humans. By working towards innovation, we can become better versions of ourselves. We can make a world for future generations to enjoy.
Innovation can do a lot for us in ways we never thought possible. It helps people reach their full potential, allows them to discover new ways of doing things, and motivates them to become better versions of themselves. It has a global effect.
In the journey of 50 years Bangladesh has accomplished and treaded a long way in sustaining and transforming itself in the global arena. The required transformation has put us up in the trajectory of becoming a middle-income developing country exposing us to greater competition. And in order to sustain and progress from the current developing pathway of success, innovation is a must required element. Innovation is the key in transforming Bangladesh and there is no alternative. As the present innovative ecosystem is still young, now Is the time to thrive and sphere ourselves ahead in achieving the Bangladesh that we always wanted – sustainable and developed nation!
