Around 42,000 New Jobs in Bangladesh's World Bank-Backed Economic Zones, and 14.25% Went to Women

Economic zones in Bangladesh have attracted nearly $300 million in private investment with support from the World Bank, creating around 42,000 new jobs, in a post World Bank Bangladesh shared on its official Facebook page, as carried by the BSS news agency in The Financial Express on October 28. The post describes new jobs that the investment has helped create, not a target. Separately, the World Bank's April 2026 project status review for the Private Investment and Digital Entrepreneurship (PRIDE) project counts 41,641 new full-time equivalent jobs in the economic zones, and 14.25 percent of them were jobs created for women. For Metaintro readers in Bangladesh, this guide covers where those jobs sit, what the zones make, how far the project is from its own goals, and what training is on offer for workers.

How Many New Jobs Does the World Bank Project Count in These Zones?

The count in the latest results data covers new or better jobs, measured as full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs and not including external construction workers.

Most of these jobs are outside the NSEZ, the country's largest economic zone. The project counts 35,412 jobs outside the National Special Economic Zone (NSEZ) and 6,229 inside it. The NSEZ is the zone formerly called Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpanagar, an industrial city that spreads over 13680.4 hectares across Sitakunda and Mirsarai in Chattogram and Sonagazi in Feni.

The count was the same at both of the last two results readings, in September 2025 and February 2026. In an older results table, the project had 43,164 direct (FTE) new jobs facilitated by project as of December 7, 2023, under a differently worded indicator.

The World Bank remains committed to supporting structural reforms that maximise economic zones' impact, World Bank country director Gayle Martin said in February 2025, according to The Daily Star.

What Investment Does the World Bank Project Record in These Zones?

Economic zones had attracted $4.76bl in private investment against a $3.7bl target, mainly in private economic zones with $3.98bl, in the World Bank's April 2026 project review.

That figure counts greenfield investment in economic zones, not including land. Investors setting up units inside the NSEZ had put in $730 million as of November 30, 2024, against a $390 million goal.

The nearly $300 million in private investment in the October post came with no breakdown by zone, year or project. Private investment from public-private partnerships stood at zero in the September 2025 and February 2026 readings, against a $100 million goal.

Which Economic Zones Are Running, and What Do They Make?

The Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) had only 10 economic zones operational as of February 2025. Two of them, the National Economic Zone in Chattogram and the Sreehatta Economic Zone in Sylhet, are government-run, while eight are under private management.

The private zones are City Economic Zone, Meghna Industrial Economic Zone, Meghna Economic Zone, Hoshendi Economic Zone, Abdul Monem Economic Zone, Bay Economic Zone, Aman Economic Zone, and East West Economic Zone. In that February 2025 count, the 10 zones together employed around 60,000 people, with some 7,000 in government-run zones and 53,000 in the private zones, in BEZA figures carried by The Daily Star.

In its February 2025 master plan presentation, BEZA was focusing on sectors such as agro-processing, textiles, and light engineering due to their low capital requirement and high employment potential.

A separate body, the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA), runs its own economic zone in Mirsarai. In November 2025 it signed deals with four companies worth US$111.26 million that are set to create employment for 7,607 Bangladeshis. The largest is a US$55.05 million footwear plant from Tai Ma Shoes with an annual capacity of 7 million pairs of formal and casual shoes, and it is expected to employ 5,900 local workers.

The other three deals are a US$25.03 million Singsin leather processing plant that will create 480 jobs, an Anre Holding testing laboratory will employ 770 local workers, and Raptox Industries, a Bangladeshi firm that will make labels, tags, tapes, printing and packaging materials, will generate employment for 457 people. Three of the four investors are fully foreign-owned enterprises from China, Singapore and a China-Singapore joint venture, while one is a Bangladeshi firm. The Singsin plant will produce 36 million square feet of finished leather annually from crust leather, and the Raptox project has a production capacity of 20,000 metric tonnes per year. The Anre laboratory will provide quality testing services for raw materials and finished products, mainly supporting industries operating in the BEPZA Economic Zone.

How Many of the New Jobs Went to Women?

Women's share of the new zone jobs had risen from a baseline of 8 percent by the February 2026 reading. When the project was approved, the World Bank's plan set a share of jobs to be dedicated to women, about 40 percent in software parks and 20 percent in Economic Zones.

In the software parks, the project counted zero jobs in software technology parks against a goal of 4,000 by December 2025 at the February 2026 reading.

Of the jobs the earlier World Bank zone project helped create from 2011 to 2021, 24 percent are held by women.

What Is the PRIDE Project, and How Much of the Money Has Been Spent?

PRIDE is a $500 million project approved on June 19, 2020 to promote private investment, job creation, and environmental sustainability in participating economic zones and software technology parks in Bangladesh. At approval, the bank's aim was to promote and attract about $2 billion direct private investments and create 150,000 jobs. The largest of its four parts, developing a greener and climate resilient NSEZ, is costed at $364.85 million in the April 2026 review, while strengthening the digital entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem is costed at $45 million.

In the April 2026 review, the credit shows $500 million original, $458.12 million revised and $78.54 million cancelled, with $141.22 million, or 30.83%, disbursed. The closing date moved from December 31, 2025 to December 20, 2027, and the project was restructured in October 2022 and September 2025.

Progress toward the project's goals moved from Moderately Unsatisfactory to Moderately Satisfactory in that review, while the risk rating for institutional capacity stayed at High.

The number of companies using green and resilient services and facilities stood at 21 in the September 2025 and February 2026 readings, against a goal of 80. The green and resilient infrastructure the project tracks covers solar energy, rainwater harvesting, green building, desalination, wastewater treatment. The number of firms with internationally recognized sustainability and resilience certifications stood at 11 in the September 2025 and February 2026 readings, against a goal of 50, counting labels such as EDGE, LEED, ISO 50001 or equivalent.

What Training Is on Offer for Workers in the Zones and Tech Parks?

By the September 2025 and February 2026 readings, the project's IT-ITeS training had reached 1,050 people in the IT and IT-enabled services sector against a goal of 3,000, and 40.67 percent of them were women. Of trainees tracked under the digital component, 50 percent achieved a positive job outcome within six months of training completion, in readings dated April 2025 and February 2026.

The count of trainees receiving demand-driven skills in economic zones stood at zero in the September 2025 and February 2026 readings, against a goal of 10,000, with women meant to make up 30 percent of them.

The project is also building a Software Technology Park and running a University Innovation Hub program and Start-up Accelerator program for digital entrepreneurs. At approval, the plan was to establish Dhaka's first digital entrepreneurship hub in the Janata Software Technology Park and turn it into a green building.

The earlier zone project offers a sense of scale. More than 21,000 trainees, 31 percent of whom are women, benefitted from its skills enhancement program, and a counsellor program it supported in Export Processing Zones served around 500,000 workers.

We want to complete the work of 10 economic zones within the next 10 years, BEZA Executive Chairman Ashik Chowdhury said in January 2025, according to the bdnews24.com report.

How Far Is Bangladesh From Its Bigger Economic Zone Job Goals?

The project's jobs goal in its results table is 120,000 by December 2027, the project's closing period.

In January 2025 the authority's chairman said the authority expected to generate employment for 250,000 people in BEZA in the next two years, and he expected to make 133 additional investors operational in BEZA by the end of 2026.

In January 2025, work was underway in 19 economic zones housing 122 institutions and generating at least 45,000 jobs, and as many as 212 investors had committed to projects within these zones. That January 2025 count covers zones in various stages of construction and operation, a different tally from the February 2025 BEZA report on the 10 operational zones. Five government zones were picked for priority work, namely the National Special Economic Zone, Srihatta Economic Zone, Maheshkhali Economic Zone, Jamalpur Economic Zone and Bangladesh Special Economic Zone. For those five zones, Ashik Chowdhury promised that water, electricity, gas and road connections will be provided in these economic zones within the next 12 to 24 months, and in the NSEZ only 421.3 hectares of this industrial hub will be developed over the next two years from January 2025.

Zones in the first phase of BEZA's draft national master plan, from FY25 to FY30, were projected to generate over 300,000 jobs by 2030 in BEZA's February 2025 presentation of the plan, and BEZA was prioritising 20 economic zones by 2046. These are projections, not vacancies. The master plan was being formulated through financing from World Bank as of February 2025, and its second phase, from FY31 to FY35, was set to focus on introducing large-scale industries such as automobile manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and heavy engineering. The first-phase zones have already been provided land, face minimal legal disputes, and have high investor interest, which the plan says makes them ideal for early implementation.

How Does This Compare With the Earlier World Bank Zone Project?

PRIDE follows the Private Sector Development Support Project (PSDSP), which between 2011 and 2021 facilitated more than $3.9 billion in direct private investment and the creation of over 41,000 jobs.

That earlier project helped set up BEZA and the Bangladesh High-Tech Park Authority, and it developed 1,500 acres of land, a 14 km embankment, 26km of roads, eight bridges, three electric substations, and two water reservoirs. It received credits totaling $170 million from the International Development Association.

The two job counts come from different projects and should not be added. The earlier project counted jobs from 2011 to 2021, and PRIDE counts new jobs from its own baseline of zero.

The earlier project also backed workers directly. It helped draft rules such as the Bangladesh Economic Zones Workers Welfare Policy and helped raise compliance with building codes, after factory disasters in 2012 and 2013 that killed thousands of workers made safety a high policy priority.

What This Means for Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?

The zones have added jobs, but the count was unchanged between the September 2025 and February 2026 readings and was far below the project's jobs goal at both. Most zone workers were in the private zones in BEZA's February 2025 figures. For Bangladeshi workers, the zones that were operational in February 2025 are where BEZA counted existing jobs, and the signed BEPZA plants name their planned hires.

• Follow the signed deals, not the master plan. Plants with signed agreements, such as the Tai Ma Shoes footwear plant in the BEPZA Economic Zone, name a headcount and a product, which a long-range projection does not.
• Know the women's hiring goal. The share of new zone jobs created for women is one of the measures the project is judged on, and it was below target at the February 2026 reading.
• IT training already has trainees. The IT and IT-enabled services training had trainees by the February 2026 reading, and its share of women trainees was far higher than the share of women in new zone jobs.

Bangladeshi workers weighing jobs abroad can compare these jobs with options such as the zero-cost Malaysia hiring plan for Bangladeshi workers and the new Oman labour pact for Bangladeshi workers.

Related Articles

• Shein's Hong Kong IPO Puts Its Garment Workers in the Spotlight
• Robotics Firms Are Paying Indian Factory Workers to Teach Machines Their Own Trade
• McLaren Plans to Double Its UK Factory Workforce as Engine Building Comes In House
• Skills for Your Manufacturing Resume
• Skills Training Programs and How to Choose One That Actually Raises Your Pay
• Almost Every Net New Job in August Went to a Woman
• How to Change Careers From a Declining Field Without a Degree Using Skills You Already Have
• IIT Madras Study Warns AI Could Weaken the Ladder From Entry-Level to Senior Roles in India

People Also Asked

Q: How many jobs have World Bank-backed economic zones created in Bangladesh?

A: The World Bank's PRIDE project counts 41,641 new full-time equivalent jobs in its April 2026 status review. Separately, a World Bank Bangladesh post in October cited around 42,000 new jobs in the economic zones.

Q: What share of economic zone jobs in Bangladesh go to women?

A: In the project's April 2026 review, 14.25 percent were jobs created for women among the new jobs counted in the economic zones, against a goal of about 20 percent in Economic Zones set when the project was approved.

Q: Which economic zones in Bangladesh are operational?

A: BEZA had 10 operational zones as of February 2025, two run by the government and eight under private management, including Meghna, Aman, Bay and East West.

Ready to explore? Metaintro brings together 50M jobs in one place. Create a free profile and start your search today.