Systematic business research to tap economic opportunities

With the emergence of globalisation, countries are exposed to global trade and economic opportunities than ever before. In order to avail the new opportunities and face new challenges, we need to design policies that enable us to move forward to a new height of development and growth. For Bangladesh, the strategy has got two important aspects: one is to reduce the risk of narrow market dependency, and the other is widening of markets overseas for exports. Already the newly emerged Asian economic giants like India and China are cashing in on the benefits of diversification of their markets and products. The policy makers of Bangladesh has realised the fact, though lately.
Market and product diversification needs to follow a lengthy and systematic procedure to be successful. We have to understand that all opportunities are not equally important or achievable. So we need to find out the appropriate opportunities and select the best options. As part of globalisation and WTO initiatives, trade barriers are being removed and more and more avenues of trade and investment opportunities are emerging throughout the world. If we like to take the opportunity of these, we need to proceed systematically.
Bangladesh has got a number of trade organisations which extend support in different aspects of trade promotion. Some of these are Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) and the recently established Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI). In addition to these organisations, a number of trade and industry associations are also engaged in promoting trade and industry. They are the chambers of commerce and industries and some important product-specific trade bodies. Though some of these agencies are at work in their own ways, there is a critical need to coordinate their efforts to explore markets overseas and also to develop and diversify the country's product base.  
Although our garment sector is enjoying ever-growing market and the country has emerged as a major exporter of garments in world ranking, the reality is that overdependence on certain products and markets creates uncertainty. Globalisation has made countries more dependant and also more vulnerable to any instability or economic imbalances -- like what happened in case of US recession. Many countries which were solely dependant on the US market for their exports faced severe economic consequences.
 In this context, it is heartening to see that the country's apparel makers are now putting extra efforts to raise their market share in new markets following emerging challenges for doing business with large buyers. According to industry insiders, RMG exporters have no other alternative but to diversify their markets in order to reduce dependency on limited markets.     
To explore new markets, Bangladesh garment manufacturers and exporters association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh knitwear manufacturers and exporters association (BKMEA) are reportedly planning to organise single country fairs both in the country and overseas. BGMEA is going to organise single country fair for Indian and Chinese buyers, buying houses and trade body representatives and other related traders in April and June this year. They are also planning to hold such expo for South Korea, South Africa, Mexico and Russia, while the BKMEA will hold fairs focusing on the Latin American markets. All these events are being planned to be organised in 2014. But this is only about the garment sector but what about other prospective sectors? No visible move is there as regards the other potential markets and products.
If we look at the endeavours of promoting exports world over, we will notice that there is an increasing drive in many countries, and innovative ideas are also in place to attract investment. Countries are opening their doors and looking for new partners of development and offering liberal investment opportunities. Few days back, Chile offered their market to Bangladeshi entrepreneurs for investment. The central Asian republic Kazakhstan has embarked on an ambitious diversification programme, aimed at developing targeted sectors like transport, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, petrochemicals and food processing. In 2010 Kazakhstan joined the Belarus-Kazakhstan-Russia Customs Union in an effort to boost foreign investment and improve trade relationships. Central and Fareast Asia, Africa, Latin America are gradually gaining economic stability, and as a result new opportunities and new markets are emerging. As regards the Asian giants like India and China, the move to grab market opportunities has been on for quite sometime, and they have been pursuing it in a systematic manner.  
Product and market diversification is a lengthy and difficult process. To achieve success in this regard a systematic, well designed and continuous market research approach is essential. In Bangladesh what we see currently is a not-so-well coordinated effort in this direction. Agencies involved in the job are trying to attain specific goals, and there is an obvious lack of follow up. But to ensure that these efforts pay tangible returns, there has to be a collaborative effort instead of stray, individual efforts. There is the need for intensive research as regards product development, adaptation and marketing. Such research has to be a continuous activity with the objective of materialising short, medium and long term planning.
Syed Ejaz Ahsan is a PhD Researcher, Department of Marketing, University of Dhaka.  Ali Yousuf  Hossain is an MBA. [email protected], [email protected]