BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

WHY ‘LOOK AFRICA’? AN ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC POTENTIAL FOR BANGLADESH

Author: Mahfuz Kabir, Sharif M. Hossain

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2010v31n3a6

ABSTRACT

One of the recent foreign policy priorities of the Government of Bangladesh is to consider Africa as a major region of huge economic potential. This paperexamines the potential of Bangladesh’s exports to African countries by adopting an augmented stochastic frontier gravity model. It reveals significantexport potentialin some selected African countries, which can be utilized by removing ‘behind the border’constraints. The paper also explores the investment potential in the African countries to benefit backward linkage industries of Bangladesh as well as to create employment in agriculture, food processing and pharmaceutical industries. It reveals that Bangladesh can export considerable number of skilled professionals and semi-skilled workers in the mineral and service sectors in African countries by strengthening mutual cooperation.