The falling entrepreneurial rank

Bangladesh's slide one step below in the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) as measured by the Washington-based Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI) comes on the heel of the World Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business' index. There also the country's ranking came down by one notch. The slide down the ranking itself is not alarming. What is of real concern is the country's entrepreneurial position among nations and its lowest rating among all the Asian countries covered by the GEDI. Bangladesh wallows in respect of entrepreneurial ability at the 134th slot among a total of 137 countries. With India and Sri Lanka clinching the 68th and 90th slots respectively, Bangladesh's lack of entrepreneurship has been woefully exposed. Based on the quality of entrepreneurship and the enabling environment comprising 14 components, the global ranking of enterprising range and depth of a country is prepared. Clearly Bangladesh has fallen way behind its neighbours in invoking its entrepreneurial spirit.

The rating apart, it is essential to know what really holds the country back when it comes to breaking newer grounds of industries and business. The GEDI report has rightly differentiated between 'factor-driven' and 'innovation-driven' economies. Factor-driven means use of resources as they are with borrowed or existing technologies. Innovation, on the other hand, adds immense values not only to available resources but also creates amazing scope for wealth creation out of nothing. On that count, Bangladesh is falling behind. One of the reasons obviously is the lack of incentives for carrying on with innovation and innovative models. The first or second generation of businesspeople are unlikely to be generous with money for research, experiment and innovation. They are apprehensive of returns on their investment.

If the talent pool of the country is taken into account, there is however every reason to be optimistic. Students representing different universities of the country at the international fora are proving their worth quite so often. They are snatching top laurels on offer in such competitions of academic excellence - be it in business or entrepreneurial models or even some of the ground-breaking scientific and technological innovations. What is missing is the collaboration between industries and academia here on a sound footing. Universities run short of funds in carrying out with research and experiments. Different foreign organisations, on the other hand, offer survey-type projects in order to collecting statistical data. This does not help develop the base of research which is behind innovation.

Business in Bangladesh has not been developed on a comprehensive policy with emphasis on creation of indigenous industries and skill development of local manpower. China is a model for such a development plan and work ethics. The Chinese outnumber any nation in the world. Bangladesh with a small geographic territory finds itself in a situation similar to China. But the similarity ends there with China prioritising small-scale innovation for running industrial villages; whereas people in Bangladesh are sending its untrained migrants abroad with low-paid jobs. Value addition to manpower resources has not taken place in any substantial manner for lack of small-scale industries and training for workers abroad. Entrepreneurship has, thus, suffered here.