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Bangladesh’s economic landscape is shifting rapidly, with the services sector tightening its dominance even as the number of businesses across the country expands sharply.

The latest Economic Census 2024, released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, shows total economic units rising to over 11.70 million—up from 7.82 million in 2013—highlighting a decade of strong growth in non-agricultural activity.

However, the expansion has not been uniform across sectors. The manufacturing sector’s share of total economic units has declined to 9.57 per cent from 11.1 per cent in 2013, reflecting a structural tilt toward services.

Despite this contraction in share, manufacturing’s contribution to employment edged up slightly, with its portion of total persons engaged (TPE) rising to 29.47 per cent.

In contrast, services now dominate the economy, accounting for 90.02 per cent of all economic units—roughly 10.53 million establishments. Wholesale and retail trade alone make up 40.19 per cent, followed by transportation and storage at 22.22 per cent, and other service activities at 10.31 per cent.

The census also underscores deep-rooted financial constraints facing businesses. A staggering 85.89 per cent of economic units reported insufficient access to capital—the single biggest barrier to growth.

Limited access to bank financing remains another major challenge, with 34.42 per cent of businesses citing difficulty in securing loans.

Other constraints include infrastructure bottlenecks, rising production costs, shortages of skilled manpower, and persistent electricity and fuel issues.

Structurally, Bangladesh’s economy continues to be dominated by small-scale enterprises. Micro and cottage industries together account for more than 95 per cent of all economic units, with micro enterprises alone making up 56.67 per cent.

Larger enterprises remain scarce, with medium and large industries contributing less than 0.4 per cent of total units.

The growth in economic activity has been broad-based geographically as well. Rural areas now host 7.38 million economic units, compared with 4.32 million in urban areas—both marking significant increases over the past decade.

The census also provides insights into workforce patterns. A total of 14,664 foreign nationals are engaged in various economic units, with the largest share coming from China, followed by Russia and India.

Speaking at the report’s unveiling, State Minister for Planning Zonayed Saki acknowledged persistent barriers to doing business.

“We have a lot of hurdles on the way to starting a business. We have to work massively to make establishing a business easy. Then we will get more investments,” he said.

He also stressed the need to expand the cottage, micro, small, and medium enterprise (CMSME) sector to boost employment and reduce poverty.

The findings highlight a service-driven growth model, but also point to structural weaknesses—particularly in financing—that continue to constrain business expansion and industrial diversification.