Additional information: business for development

To build business means to design and sell a product that somebody else is willing to pay for. The resulting improvements of any working process helps to develop an economy. To obtain the needed insights and inspiration to create a new product or service transparency is needed. Only through a visible incentive motivation is induced.
Those are very basic thoughts - causally determined - which are the essential basis of many successful organizations and initiatives making a change in Bangladesh.

In the following I will introduce some examples:

BRAC is an integrated network organization providing legal education, credit, health insureance and business oportunities through there store chain named Aarong.



Cellbazaar founded by Kamal Quadir - brother of Iqbal Quadir – is a sophisticated sms based market plattform. I found the following video on a very nice blog by arvetica.



If you want to know more about business in bangladesh - here are some information plattforms

velki
business info bangladesh
bgyellowpages
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry

I also recommend the commercial guide of the U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh. It contains basic information about the Bengali market from an outside view. At this point the United States are still the major source of direct investments in Bangladesh. However the missing transparency and the unknown etiquette of making presents gives Western Investors a difficult time. Nevertheless especially Asian investors reveal an increasing interest in Bangladesh. Singapore, India, Thailand, Hong Kong and South Korea are the biggest second tier investors. On Bengali business portals Chinese Companies are very present – this is maybe a sign for a possible trend in the future.


Extra: Jacqueline Novogratz is giving a diplomatic lesson in favor of giving aid through incentives - not through charity. She critizes the moral absolution defined by the sum of money transfered to developing countries and demands a shift to a market based market-based philanthropy. Most of all incentives need transparency - for development!