How can Bangladesh build a semiconductor ecosystem?

Take Ulkasemi, for example. It has become the only company from Bangladesh to be recognised as a partner in TSMC's Design Center Alliance. Over time, the Bangladeshi semiconductor design services company has played a role in integrating Bangladeshi engineers, technologists, and business professionals into international semiconductor supply chains. 

This underscores a fundamental truth: given the opportunity, Bangladeshi engineers can perform at the highest levels of technical complexity. While Bangladesh is unlikely to build billion-dollar semiconductor fabrication plants or foundries in the near term, several credible success stories demonstrate that the country can participate in meaningful ways in the global semiconductor value chain.

There is an acute global shortage of skilled talent in the semiconductor industry. The policy challenge is whether Bangladesh can develop a well-coordinated national plan to leverage this demand and fill the gap.

Where Bangladesh could compete

While it may not be producing advanced chips domestically, Bangladesh is already producing something equally essential: engineers capable of contributing to global semiconductor design and validation processes.

This is where Bangladesh's opportunity lies. With a large young population, growing engineering capacity, and expanding international engagement, targeted investments in advanced skills, technical education, and global partnerships could transform human capital into a strategic national asset.

The semiconductor industry consists of three core segments: chip design, fabrication, and packaging and testing. Public attention—and much of the geopolitical conversation—tends to gravitate toward fabrication: capital-intensive foundries that cost billions of dollars to build and operate at advanced technology nodes, producing arrays of chips on silicon wafers.

For Bangladesh, however, the most pragmatic entry points lie elsewhere: semiconductor design services at the front end of the value chain, and packaging and testing (P&T) at the back end of the value chain. 

Global consulting firms such as McKinsey estimate that the semiconductor market today stands at several hundred billion dollars annually, with projections reaching roughly $1–1.6 trillion by 2030. This growth is driven primarily by artificial intelligence, data centres, automotive and industrial automation, advanced electronics, and high-performance computing.

While chip design services are not reported as a standalone market, policy researchers often infer design activity from foundry outsourcing revenues. Using this approach, the effective global opportunity for outsourced design work is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars today, with strong growth expected throughout the decade. In advanced digital and system-on-chip segments, a substantial share of design work—often cited in the range of 40–70%—is already outsourced to global engineering hubs such as India, Vietnam, and Eastern Europe.

Once a chip is designed, it is manufactured at global foundries such as TSMC, Samsung, GlobalFoundries, or Intel. The resulting silicon wafers—each containing hundreds or thousands of individual dies—are then sent to packaging and testing facilities. These facilities transform bare silicon into usable products by providing protection, electrical connectivity, and thermal management, and—critically—by validating performance, reliability, and durability against specifications. Only after this stage can chips enter global supply chains.

What building an ecosystem requires 

A semiconductor ecosystem is not a single factory or firm. It is an infrastructure with a network of  skills, suppliers, institutions, and global partnerships operating across borders. Its complexity also makes it vulnerable to unpredictable geopolitical dynamics and supply disruptions precisely why global firms are seeking a diversified and resilient supply chain. 

To integrate into this value chain, Bangladesh could focus on several priorities. Government policies should be designed to attract foreign investment and joint ventures that are competitive with other Asian economies. The country can build on its existing strengths in design services to position itself as a key player in this segment, while gradually expanding into assembly, testing, and packaging. Attracting anchor partnerships with one or more global packaging and testing firms will be critical in establishing credibility and scale.

In parallel, Bangladesh must develop robust talent pipelines through semiconductor-focused engineering and vocational programmes, supported by industrial clusters that offer reliable power, water, logistics, and cleanroom-ready infrastructure. Competitive incentives—including cash incentives, tax holidays, grants, and fast-track approvals—will be necessary to lower entry barriers for investors. Efforts should also focus on fostering local suppliers in materials, automation, and testing equipment to deepen domestic value addition. 

Finally, sustained investment in applied R&D, particularly in chip-design process innovation, advanced packaging, and reliability engineering, including joint laboratories with universities, alongside strong collaboration across government, academia, and industry, will be essential to building a resilient semiconductor ecosystem.

The case for central coordination 

Recognising these needs, the government has recently formed a National Semiconductor Taskforce under the Chief Adviser's Office, bringing together academia, industry, policymakers, and non-resident Bangladeshi experts. The taskforce has identified skills development, policy support, and global linkages as priority areas across short-term (2025–2026), medium-term (2027–2029), and long-term (2030 and beyond) horizons. The priorities outlined above reflect the essence of the Taskforce's recommendations. However, sustaining momentum will require strong execution discipline and centrally coordinated implementation.

International experience shows that successful semiconductor strategies rely on strong central coordination combined with decentralised, market-led execution. In the United States, semiconductor policy is coordinated through the CHIPS Program Office within the Department of Commerce, with strategic oversight at the White House level. Japan has placed semiconductor revitalisation under cabinet-level coordination to align industrial policy, skills development, and global partnerships. Malaysia's National Semiconductor Strategy is overseen centrally, while execution is distributed across agencies. India follows a similar model through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, with close involvement of the Prime Minister's Office, and Vietnam's semiconductor initiatives are coordinated at the highest level of government, led directly by the Prime Minister.

These models share a common feature: no single ministry "runs" the semiconductor industry, but central coordination at the highest level ensures alignment, prioritisation, and rapid problem-solving. Given the cross-cutting nature of semiconductor development—spanning education, infrastructure, finance, trade, and international engagement—Bangladesh would benefit from a similar coordination and facilitation mechanism anchored in the Chief Adviser's Office, without displacing private-sector leadership or market-based decision-making.

Aligning talent, policy, and execution 

For the industry to develop sustainably, talent development efforts across government, academia, and industry must be integrated into a coherent national system rather than remaining fragmented. A stronger national focus on STEM education should begin at the school level and be anchored in practical learning—through improved curricula, skilled and knowledgeable teachers, hands-on science and technology exposure, and national initiatives such as science fairs, age-appropriate competitions, and student hackathons.

Although universities are producing engineering graduates, many are not yet industry-ready and require additional specialised training to work effectively in the semiconductor sector.

In this context, the Skills for Industry Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (SICIP) under the Ministry of Finance, supported by the Asian Development Bank, provides a platform to translate skills priorities into industry-ready outcomes. SICIP can support industry-aligned training programmes developed with private-sector partners to produce engineers and technologists equipped for semiconductor design services.

For sustainable growth, Bangladesh's chip design sector also needs a stronger pipeline of mid-level and senior managers—a capability that is currently limited. Targeted, industry-focused training, combined with structured career progression and leadership development, can help cultivate future-ready managers and address this critical bottleneck.

In addition, selected initiatives beyond training could support applied R&D in chip design processes. Bangladesh should also invest in complementary initiatives that expand applied R&D capacity and provide hands-on training through packaging and testing laboratories—critical components for building a full semiconductor talent pipeline. Establishing a packaging and testing laboratory would enable practical skills development in instrumentation, reliability testing, and quality assurance—skills relevant both to a domestic P&T industry and to global semiconductor employers.

However, the opportunity is time-bound. With coordinated leadership, institutional coherence, and sustained investment in skills and quality systems, Bangladesh can move from isolated success stories to a durable semiconductor ecosystem. The question is no longer whether it is possible, but whether the country will act decisively while the opportunity window remains open. 

Abdullah Al Masud is a Consultant Business Economist at Ulkasemi, specialising in the semiconductor and technology sectors, and is also active as an entrepreneur. The views expressed are his own and presented in an independent analytical capacity. An earlier version benefited from comments by Mr Mashuque Rahman. The writer can be reached at masud.vt@gmail.com.