Published: Saturday, July 6, 2013

Branding Bangladesh
MeherunNessa Nabi and Mohammed Al-Amin Shafkat
BANGLADESH, our beautiful Bangladesh. The word beautiful creates an image of green
meadows, blue rivers, golden paddy, marvelous rainfall, charming winter, fruity summer,
Royal Bengal Tiger, Sundarbans, Coxs Bazar, Sylhet, Rangamati and so on in the minds of
Bangladeshis. But underneath this beauty, problems like poverty, natural calamities,
political mishaps, withdrawal of GSP facilities, inflation, screams and tears of RMG workers
are infecting the land. And unfortunately these are what or how most of the world knows of
Bangladesh.
Thinking about how can we erase that, one idea popped into our minds, a new potential
industry can help in creating a Brand of Bangladesh. The industry is tourism. And it is good
to know that the idea is turning into action.
For the past few decades the top tourist attractions around the world have adopted a
strategy of destination and country branding. Through proper positioning efforts and
creation of brand image in the minds of tourists, these countries and places have reaped the
benefit with huge revenues. Tourism industry in the neighboring countries such as Nepal,
Sri Lanka, Maldives and India is given priority under state-patronage. As they say
Incredible India, Malaysiatruly Asia, so we say Beautiful Bangladesh.
Furthermore, country branding is very popular among these countries. Consequently,
tourism is one of the chief sources of earning foreign exchange and employment generation
in all of these countries. In addition, remarkable growth and development of tourism has
taken place in countries with socio-religious environment similar to Bangladesh. Malaysia
and Indonesia are among such countries. All these success stories underline the massive
importance branding tourism possesses.
Fortunately, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh
Parjatan Corporation have realized what needs to be done straight away. After long
deliberations and a number of delayed attempts, the Bangladesh tourism branding effort
was finally launched formally in the month of December, 2008. The branding slogan for the
country has been selected as Beautiful Bangladesh, and the branding logo depicts a rising
sun over the dancing waves of the sea.
The writers are under-grad students at East West University.
http://archive.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/branding-bangladesh/

Bangladesh's country branding

Published : Sunday, 12 May 2013

Shahana

Bilkis

The brand name of our country is Beautiful Bangladesh which signifies its panoramic landscape and
seascape. A business leader has proposed five specific areas that Bangladesh should work on under
the term country branding: manpower, ready-made garments and textiles, jute and jute bags, microcredit,

and

peace

keeping

missions.

Bangladesh is yet to get a respectable position in global branding measurements. Our branding or
image building has remained poor for many reasons. Though we have wonderful beaches in Cox's
Bazar and Kuakata with bright sun, sand, sea, hilly terrain, and the Sundarbans with the Royal Bengal
Tiger, for a foreign tourist, it may not be enjoyable due to absence of facilities for travelling to the
places - especially, to Kuakata. In addition, Dhaka city's nightmarish gridlock, accompanied by terrible
and insufficient public transport system and aggressive street beggars, make the situation worse.
These

are

enough

for

shaping

negative

mindset

that

can

destroy

our

country's

image.

Again, 'Negative Country Branding' may come from both inside and outside. If we consider the case of
Bangladesh, in many cases, negative branding comes from both the party in power and the
opposition. Any utterance must be made carefully by them. Another case is the manpower sector.
Some dishonest manpower agents have stained on our image badly by managing forged documents
and sending aspirants abroad in other unlawful ways. Weaknesses at the government level are
responsible for this. All wrongdoers must be punished in such cases. Crimes committed by
Bangladeshi workers abroad also sully the image of the country. Probably, we lack proper process,
training

and

counseling

to

prepare

these

people

before

they

are

sent

abroad.

On the export side of agro products, including fish or meat, use of any harmful chemical must be
tested before they are sent off abroad. Provision for severe punishment to the culprits should be there
to

deter

them.

We

should

not

give

any

scope

to

anyone

to

destroy

our

image.

The government has so far undertaken propaganda-oriented efforts for image building. The
government's calls for building "Digital Bangladesh" and "Time for Change" have encouraged the
private sector also for branding Bangladesh. There are a number of initiatives taken by private sector
groups for this purpose. Unfortunately, at the level of politics, the environment necessary for branding
Bangladesh is deteriorating. It is time that the civil society put pressure on the political leaders to take
united

approach

shahana_bilkis@yahoo.com

to

this

important

national

task.