Developing Countries Can’t Count on Manufacturing to Supercharge Growth

Rubana Huq’s garment factory is a constant cacophony of hissing steam irons, swooshing fans and snipping scissors. In the vast industrial facility near Dhaka, hundreds of women guide pieces of fabric through sewing machines, stitching clothing for the likes of H&M, Pepe Jeans and Primark. A digital signboard tracks productivity with the precision of a stock ticker, calculating the defect rate for garments down to the hundredth percentage point.

The scene evokes the growth strategy dozens of countries have followed in recent decades: factories employing legions of workers to produce goods for export, at wages that are low by Western standards but relatively generous in local terms. That model has more than tripled the size of Bangladesh’s economy, turning subsistence farmers into textile workers for brands from Adidas to Zara—what the World Bank calls one of the “greatest development stories” of our time.