• By quade
• 16 October 2023

Business Process Outsourcing Industry Sees Slow But Steady Growth in Bangladesh

Business process outsourcing (BPO) has slowly grown to become a big part of the Bangladeshi economy. It has been responsible for a large portion of the country’s economic growth, job creation, and foreign investment.

Thanks to the country’s low wages, the industry has the potential to be highly competitive and even increase its export revenue by billions. The Bangladesh Association of Contact Centers and Outsourcing estimates that the BPO sector’s annual revenue increased by 17%, reaching $700 million.

Of that amount, $300 million goes to the export market, while the remainder is generated within the domestic market. This is divided into about 350 local enterprises. Most of these are small and medium-sized, providing services like call centers, chat support, digital marketing, image processing, marketing, payroll, human resource management, and account and supply chain management.

While these achievements are impressive, several persistent problems in the economy prevent the industry from flourishing.

Issues Holding Back the Bangladeshi BPO Industry

Despite the size of the BPO industry in Bangladesh, this only represents a modest percentage of the global industry. Among the issues that the industry is facing are a lack of human resources in BPO businesses and the language barrier among clients and workers due to a lack of language proficiency among graduates.

The outsourcing sector in neighboring countries like India and the Philippines provides a much larger share of the BPO industry. A part of this is because of their proficiency in speaking English. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi BPOs face challenges in finding graduates who are proficient in speaking Bangla or English.

This language barrier makes it difficult for them to provide service to both local and international businesses.

“Finding a graduate having the basic communication skills – being able to speak clearly, understanding the needs of customers, and writing properly — is a tough job. The basics of most fresh graduates are missing. They can’t write an application properly and numerous mistakes are found in their punctuation, both in English and Bangla. Many of them can’t even speak in Bangla with proper pronunciation, let alone English.”

– Wahid Sharif, president of the Bangladesh Association of Contact Center and Outsourcing.

Sharif believes in the potential of the Bangladeshi BPO industry, saying that they have the potential to compete in places like the Philippines but that serious reforms are necessary. In particular, education needs to be improved to better train students for the requirements of the job market.

“Now there is a big opportunity for Bangladesh as the Philippines market is turning costlier for global clients. But if there is a need for 100 people, we can’t even find three. If we want to maintain a big team, the cost of goods delivery becomes expensive. It reduces our competitiveness.”

– Wahid Sharif, president of the Bangladesh Association of Contact Center and Outsourcing.

The other major issue that the industry is facing is the high attrition rates of employees. This is because of “never-ending” customer expectations, technical disruptions that prevent them from working efficiently, and safety hazards. This was said by Md. Mamunur Rahman, CEO of Net Bangla, a BPO service with more than 50 people.

“The employee attrition in the BPO industry is pretty high. Companies are not able to effectively retain their employees for a long time. So, they suffer huge losses every time they have to train up new employees.”

Md Mamunur Rahman, CEO of Net Bangla

Potential for Growth in the Industry

Even with these obstacles, the BPO service in Bangladesh continues to grow. This is in part due to the government’s commitment to improving the issues and providing better services to the country, especially outsourcing.

One example of this success is Synesis IT Ltd, a company with over 550 workers. This business offers call center solutions that assist clients in reaching their intended audiences, managing communications, and acquiring data for effective customer relationship management.

As they worked, the company completed several projects, including the Probash Bondhu Call Center, which is intended for the government’s A2I initiative, a Union Parishad HelpLine, and a helpline for the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority.

“We have been providing various types of services of the government to the citizens, solving many problems. Now we are trying to export these services to other countries.”

Shohorab Ahmed Chowdhury, co-founder and manager of Synesis IT Ltd.

Another sector that shows promise is the graphic design and image editing of the BPO industry. While India, the Philippines, and Vietnam remain favored destinations, Bangladesh was able to carve out a niche because of its lower costs and scalability.

There are estimated to be 7,000 graphic design specialists working in 100 small and medium companies, with another 50,000 working as freelancers.

Kowser Ahmed Nirob, CEO and founder of The KOW Company, spoke about this. He said that 3D images are becoming a major component in businesses now. Images that can appear realistic and provide a complete view are what dominate the BPO industry. His company employs 550 people and has worked with some top retailers.