For a week, Ashulia, Mirpur, Gazipur and Narayanganj have looked less like the engine of our economy than a battlefield. Workers demanding a Tk 30,000 minimum wage have blocked highways and clashed with police; at one point some 670 factories shut. A new wage board promises a revised pay scale by January.
Our workers deserve a raise. The 12,500 taka minimum set in December 2023 is now worth about $101. But doubling it in one stroke, cheered on by NGOs and commentators who have never met a garment payroll, is not a wage policy. It is a threat to the very jobs it claims to protect.
30,000 taka is about $242 a month. By H&M's own figures, the garment minimum is about $124 in India, $135 in Pakistan and $208 in Cambodia; Myanmar's is under $4 a day. Overnight we would pay nearly double India and Pakistan, with no matching leap in productivity, energy or design. Buyers don't pay for good intentions. They move orders.
The fair path is a real raise now, indexed to inflation, with further rises tied to productivity gains that owners, workers and government commit to together.
Owners are already trapped in a domestic price war, underbidding one another and piling up bank debt. Gas and power fail, so machines run on diesel generators. Meanwhile, bigger players book orders through Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Dubai, keeping the margin and the dollars offshore while local factories are handed prices nobody can match.
Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have always paid for others' failures: General Ershad's autocracy, then banks hollowed out, with the S Alam Group accused of siphoning vast sums. After July we got investment by spectacle (a summit, a special flight to Chattogram, 3,100 crore taka in pledges) while the patient work of courting our own diaspora, as India did, was barely attempted.
Our mobile operators’ market is largely foreign-owned and its profits leave as dividends, while India's Jio has just raised a record $3.1 billion at home. On 8 October the New Mooring Container Terminal, handling about 44 percent of Chattogram's containers, went to DP World for 15 years, though capable Bangladeshi operators exist.
At Patenga, which Bangladesh built for $240 million, $100 million of the foreign operator's financing came from a loan that included state-owned IDCOL and BIFFL. Bangladeshi operators should have first claim on that money.
Shipping agency and C&F rules have cut local ownership to 51/49, the ICD cap is gone, and wholly foreign-owned freight forwarders are next. These businesses bring no factories or vessels, only a licence that diverts cargo and profits abroad. Saudi Arabia still reserves commercial agency for Saudis; our own aviation law keeps GSAs Bangladeshi-owned.
"Bangladesh First" is the BNP's motto. Let it mean Bangladeshi Entrepreneurs First.
Sylhet's tea once stood beside Assam and Ceylon. Wages rose but the gardens never modernised, cheaper tea crossed our borders, and exports withered. Garments earn about $40 billion a year and employ four million people, mostly rural women. They must not follow tea.
Washington is courting Naypyidaw for its rare earths and wants to become a major trading partner. If Myanmar returns to Western markets with its far lower costs, every taka we add without matching productivity is an order handed to Yangon.
Form a Business Advisory Council of proven, patriotic entrepreneurs.
Strike a productivity compact: a fair raise now, more as skills and output rise.
Guarantee energy to export factories and finance automation.
Book exports at home, ending third-country order routing.
Back Bangladeshi design studios become worldclass,
Independently vet machinery imports and land deals for foreign investors.
Keep low-capital services local, and stop harassing owners for political ends.
Our greatest asset is our people: some 175 million, one language, hard-working and ambitious. Korea and Malaysia built prosperity on industries like ours, backed by governments that believed in their own entrepreneurs. Better conditions for workers and better capability for factories must come together.
After the bloodshed of July, cool heads must prevail. Workers and owners stand on the same factory floor. Let us win together, and hand away nothing Bangladeshis built.
—
Anis Ahmed is Founder and Group CEO of MGH Group, a Dhaka-based group with interests in logistics, shipping agency, freight forwarding, fintech and media.
*Monthly garment minimum wage, H&M Group data (March 2026). $242 is Tk 30,000 at Tk 124 to the dollar.
NBC News: garment factories close as workers clash with police
Business & Human Rights Centre: hundreds of factories close
Prothom Alo: Bangladesh lags behind on wages (H&M data)
The Star: Myanmar minimum wage set at Ks 7,800
Dhaka Tribune: Investment Summit cost and pledges
Bloomberg: Jio's record $3.1 billion IPO
Prothom Alo: CPA and DP World sign NCT deal
TBS: RSGT Bangladesh $170m investment
TBS: IDCOL joins $100m RSGT debt facility
Dhaka Tribune: experts on foreign ownership caps in logistics
Clyde & Co: Saudi commercial agency regime
MINING.COM / Bloomberg: US seeks Myanmar ties and rare earths