During my recent trip to Silicon Valley, I repeatedly asked my Non Resident Bangladeshi friends to at least think about working in Bd. So, how badly does Bd need skilled managerial, business and IT skills? Example: there are at least 100,000 Indians who hold high-paid jobs in Bangladesh (BOI has issued 65000 work visas to Indians, and the rest are there temporarily or with other visas). While I do not begrudge them one bit - they bring a lot of value to our businesses (eg, Unilever Bd, headed by a group of Indians, is one of the most profitable branches of Unilever) - surely, this number indicates the need for talent, right?
Guess what I repeatedly heard back from my NRB friends? "Yeah, sure, they will pay Indians or other foreigners well, but as soon as they see another Bangladeshi - no matter how much American experience they have - Bangladeshi organizations will not want to pay high salaries."
Is this really true? Anyone have real experiences? Certainly my short experience with the BD IT sector indicates otherwise - there was no end to the ways in which the IT community made me feel welcome back home - but maybe I am an exception or did not have grand enough expectations?
While in Singapore, I was talking with another friend, originally from Bangladesh, who used to work for a US-based Fortune 100 company. As an executive of this company, he had spent 2.5 years pursuing a grand vision for a manufacturing plant in Bangladesh which, in the end, had come to naught. He fought battles both internal (so-and-so Minister asking for Ghush, being tripped up by powerful businessmen, etc) and external (forces at his multinational which did not want this large work going to Bangladesh.) As I lobbied him yet again to consider a position in Bd, he shook his head, saying the experience had left him with too much bitter taste.
So... what gives? A serious impedance mismatch? Can't this be fixed? Is this our
Khaislat?