Course Code: MGT 507& MGT 411 Course Title: Project Management

Course Teacher: Prof. Md. Muinuddin Khan Lecture # 13

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities & Threats (SWOT) Analysis of Project Management in

Bangladesh

Strengths& Opportunities for economic development and project management:

1. Growing Economy with ample scope of fresh and new projects and also there is heavy need of
infrastructural development projects.
2. Abundance of manpower with big potentiality to export to various countries of the world
where unskilled & semi-skilled workers are needed.
3. Urge for development in Bangladesh andpolitics is based on performance in the field of
economic development through efficient and effective project management.
4. Food production increased manifold through use of fertilizer, irrigation (STW & DTW),
pesticides, high yielding varieties of crops, crop diversification, etc.
5. Opportunities are there to have development in the field of agriculture viz, horticultures,
flower cultivation, fisheries, poultry farming, etc.
6. Huge potentialities of marine fish resources in the economic zone of Bay of Bengal.
7. Useful, economical & urgent use of coal resources is essential.
8. Adaptability and training of manpower vis-à-vis modern technologies including information
technology.
9. Tremendous development in RMG sector brought about revolutionary changes in employment
sector especially for woman folk (at present 80% of 4 m. workers belong to this group), as a
result, there is a big socio-economic development in the country & huge foreign exchange
earned by this sector (about 78% of total export earnings, but the value addition or
contribution to G.D.P is very small, due to very scanty indigenous industrial inputs.
10. At the time of liberation we have had an industrial base consisting of large scale jute mills,
moderate number of textile mills, handsome sugar mills, big size of fertilizer factories, paper
mills, steel mills, refinery, chemical industries, etc.
11. There is a big scope of Export diversification of the following items:
a) Ship building;
b) Pharmaceutical products;
c) Jute goods, especially use of jute in paper manufacturing & jute plastic;
d) Vegetables & flower export;
e) Software;
f) Leather products, e.g. footwear, ladies bags, etc.
g) Shrimp & sea-fish, etc.
Threats:
1. Due to political uncertainty, uncongenial law and order situation, unscrupulous business man
involved in international trade through their unethical practices, black money holders and
unpatriotic politicians and erosion of democratic norms; have caused serious damage to
investment environment which resulting into huge plight of money and capital to international
banks outside the country. This has also caused a serious setback for foreign investors.
(Investment environment).
2. High political risk including political instability arising out of lack of practice of democratic
norms & human rights
3. Rivers interlinking projects of India,so we are getting scanty water flow in our rivers,
resulting into loss of cultivable land & crop production.
4. Lack of political will. Politics is confined with rich businessmen with business motive (about
75% of total MPs elected are businessman and millionaires).Educated, devoted and patriotic
people used to remain aloof from participating in local & national political arena.Lack of
effective political leadership.
5. Corruption is rampant & projects are considered as sources of corruption.
6. Very poor, defective and inefficient project planning.
7. Serious brain drain to western world because of lack of security, very low standard of politics
and administrative structure, poor pay structure, etc.
8. Very weak & inefficient capital & money markets. In last decades there were two big
debacles in stock market.
9. Uncongenial, improper & ineffective legal framework, as justice delayed is justice denied.
10. Poor & very inadequate technical bases, though we have a few technical universities, colleges
and institutions.
11. Data bank lacking, highly inaccurate and intentional manipulation of national statistics.
12. Absence of business ethics: adulteration of food, use of chemical in fruits, formalin in fish and
unclean water in milk, etc.
13. Absence of good governance & lack of leadership.
14. Low Savings- G.D.P ratio.
15. Limited size of market & low existing buying capacities because of poor economic conditions
& low per capita income.
16. Lack and inadequacy of infrastructural facilities.
17. Unhealthy distribution of income and concentration of most of the wealth of the country in the
hands of several thousands.
18. Absence of social values and social justice with its serious erosion.
19. Serious exploitation of society and country by so called educated people.
20. Irregular flow of foreign funds from foreign donors, agencies and institutions.
21. High frequency of natural calamities and disasters.
22. Serious impacts of ozone unbalancing, warming up of atmosphere, increase of sea level,
probable flood and erosion of landscape by rain & rivers.Impact of climate change on
Bangladesh economic 9% GDP loss by the end of the century, 23% crop loss in Bangladesh
by 2080 (ADB study, Daily Star August, 2014).*
23. Impacts of open market economy & formation of regional economic blocs.
24. Heavy drainage of national exchequer due to subsidies to oil & gas sector, energy and food
sectors, especially huge amount of subsidies is provided to Quick Rental Power Stations in
country, which grow heavily is recent years.
25. Very loose border and rampant smuggling from neighboring countries.
26. Imbalance between direct and indirect tax structure. More than 50% tax revenue comes from
indirect tax.
27. Lack of interdepartmental, inter ministerial coordination & ineffective sectoral adjustment.
28. Serious problem of time and cost overruns of project implementation.
29. Lack of motivation in implementation of projects with serious snags.
30. High degree of propensity to incur unproductive expenses out of project funds both in public
and private sectors.
31. Lack of attractability towards F.D.I due to poor infrastructural facilities, corruption from top
to bottom, political instability, etc.
Weaknesses:

1. Poor & very inadequate technical bases.

2. Inadequacy of research & trained manpower.
3. Unfriendly administrative machinery.
4. Irrational fiscal policy.
5. Inefficient monitoring of banking structure & banking policy.
6. Default culture at merchandise & banking levels.
7. Precarious law & order situation.
8. Low literacy rate & lack of civic sense, patriotism, and sense of belongingness.
9. Inadequacy of physical resources, limited gas reserve.
10. Growth of population leads to loss of agricultural land due to urbanization & need to build
increased no of abodes or homestead.
11. Wrong conception about religion & week socio-cultural institution, of which family is the
weakest.
12. Cumbersome custom formalities, high degree of corruption of custom officials.
13. Very wide trade gap that is unfavorable balance of trade & balance of payment position
(Export earning is about 40% import bills).
14. Ineffective balance of growth of agricultural & industrial sectors.
15. Initial industrial base was planned on the basis of different geographical dispersion and
market.
16. Inadequacy of basic, heavy and mother industries like steel & machineries.
17. Political unrest impedes projects implementation & absence of network analysis or project
scheduling is hardly pursued.
18. Ineffective & corrupted banking structure, as is evident from recent onslaught of deposits
through bad loans.
19. Trading mentality of entrepreneurs, lack of business farsightedness resulting into interest
towards painstaking industrial projects.
20. High degree of irresponsibility, callousness & indifference on the part of project managers of
public sector projects.