Productivity & quality
Compare output per labor hour, yield, supervision, automation, training and customer-quality requirements—not only payroll.
Bangladesh vs Other Markets
Use benchmarks to ask better questions—not to pick a country by spreadsheet.
A balanced comparison of Bangladesh with Vietnam, India, China, Indonesia and Cambodia using selected public benchmarks and an investor-oriented decision framework.
How to compare
What public benchmarks can—and cannot—tell you.
Wages, logistics scores and market size are useful signals. They are not a feasibility model.
Country comparisons often create false precision. A wage gap may be offset by productivity. A stronger logistics score may matter greatly for time-sensitive products and much less for another supply chain. A large domestic market has limited value if the company lacks a viable route to customer.
VARELAN uses public indicators to establish context, then moves toward the operating variables that determine a specific investment: yield, automation, input sourcing, utility load, freight routes, inventory, duties, customer lead time, site costs, tax treatment, management overhead and risk.
The table below deliberately avoids a proprietary “winner” score. It shows selected external benchmarks that can help management decide where deeper diligence is warranted.
Selected public benchmarks
Cost and logistics context.
Manufacturing-worker base salary: JETRO survey, August 2025. Logistics: World Bank LPI 2023. Survey samples and methodologies differ; use as directional context.
Source:
Reference table: selected wage and logistics benchmarks remain below for quick scanning.
| Market | Manufacturing worker base salary / month (US$) | World Bank LPI score / 5 | Investor interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh | $94 | 2.6 | Very low wage benchmark; logistics and execution need careful project-level planning. |
| Cambodia | $247 | 2.4 | Low-cost manufacturing option with a smaller industrial and domestic-market base. |
| Vietnam | $302 | 3.3 | Deeper electronics/manufacturing ecosystems and stronger logistics benchmark at higher labor cost. |
| India | $329 | 3.4 | Large domestic market and broad industrial depth; state-level differences are material. |
| Indonesia | $385 | 3.0 | Large domestic market and resource/industrial base with geography-specific operating complexity. |
| China | $629 | 3.7 | Deep supplier ecosystem and infrastructure, with much higher wage benchmark and different strategic-risk profile. |
Read the chart as a screen, not a score. A lower salary benchmark may strengthen a labor-cost thesis; a higher logistics score may reduce lead-time and inventory risk. Neither metric captures productivity, supplier depth, trade access, utilities, taxes, political risk or management complexity.
Beyond the scoreboard
Six dimensions that should follow the first benchmark screen.
Supplier ecosystem
Determine which inputs can be localized, which remain imported and how supplier depth changes cost and resilience.
Logistics & lead time
Model actual port, route, customs, buffer inventory and customer-service implications for the product.
Utilities & industrial land
Compare site availability, power, water, environmental requirements, rent or land cost and expansion potential.
Market & trade position
Assess domestic demand, export customer geography, applicable trade treatment and route-to-market economics.
Regulation & country risk
Consider policy, FX, compliance, political, tax and execution risks in the context of the investor’s mandate.
Country deep dives
Dedicated market comparisons.
Decision use
The right comparison is company-specific.
A country can rank second on generic metrics and still be the best location for one product—or rank first and still be wrong for another.
A serious location decision should weight the factors that actually affect the investor’s economics and risk. Those weights differ by product, customer, automation, supply chain, capital intensity and management model.
VARELAN does not publish its proprietary client-specific feasibility methodology or internal scoring logic. Public education is intentionally high level. A qualified engagement can move from these benchmarks into the project-specific operating assumptions management needs to decide.
Private conversation
Compare locations around your operating model.
Share the product, target markets, production process and countries on the shortlist. We can frame the decision variables that deserve deeper diligence.
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