Assessment Report On The Microenvironment Of Bangladesh For Expansion By Student Flight Centre

Your assessment report should be in a report style format (i.e. a format that would be expected in an authentic workplace situation) and should include the following content:

1. Introduction to the report
2. Brief company background including why it might consider overseas expansion (Topics 1& 2)
3. Brief introduction to chosen country
4. Political & Legal Analysis (Topics 2 & 3)
5. Economic Analysis (Topics 1)
6. Cultural Analysis (Topic 4 & 5)
7. Ethics and Social Responsibility

Company Background

Student Flight Centre is a company that deals in providing cheap international flight deals and discounts to the students they also provide deals for hotel and travel reservations. In present, the company is operating its business in countries like Australia, UK, South Africa and New Zealand (Student Flight, 2018).  Now the company want to expand its business to some other country for that the company has chosen a South Asia country Bangladesh. This report is developed to analysis the microenvironment of the selected country     

Student Flight Centre is travelling retail company, FCTG has opened its very first Student flight store in 1995 the main aim behind the establishment of Student Flight stores is to provide gain access to student airfare discounts. After a long period of steady growth the company has re-launched its brand in 2006, with the re-launch the company has established 50 shops within 12 months. Student Flight centre is the most leading student flights and adventures travel business company that has been expand its business in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK (Student Flight, 2018).  The main target market of Student Flight Centre is Youth airfare and adventure market. In present, the company is operating around 72+ stores in Australia only and few more stores in other countries. The company offers a wide range of discount to the student on various facilities like best airfare, providing budgeted 5 star hotels, passes of bus, festivals and events. The company provide other various facilities such as online booking, 24/7 customer service, widest range of travel, travel money options, youth travel insurance, excusive festival package, staff picks, best guarantee and many more (Student Flight, 2018).                 

Bangladesh is a country in South Asia, it share its terrestrial border with Myanmar and India. The countries like china, Nepal and Bhutan are located near Bangladesh but they are not sharing their borders with each other. The maritime territory of Bangladesh is Bay of Bengal that is equal to the extent of its land area. Bangladesh is the world’s eighth most populous country. The capital of Bangladesh is Dhaka moreover it is the largest city of the country followed by Chittagong that is the largest port of the country. The people who live in Bangladesh are known as Bangladeshis that include the individuals from variety of cultural groups and convictions (Morshed, 2017).  In Bangladesh 98% people speaks Bengalis that is why it is consider to be the official language of Bangladesh. The politically dominant Bengali Muslims developed Bangladesh as a world’s third largest Muslim majority country.  Bangladesh is covered by the Bengal Delta that is largest delta on Earth in addition the country covers 700 rivers and 8046 km of inland waterways. Bangladesh is a middle power developing nation and its economy, it is ranked 43^rd in terms of nominal GDP (Abdullah, Monsoor, Johari & Mohd Radzi, (2015).  The country is an vital sponsor of regional cooperation and connectivity and it is the largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping forces.        

Introduction of Chosen Country

The politics of Bangladesh is the dominant by two Political parties these are Bangladesh Awami League and Bangladesh National Party BNP. The country has a parliamentary democracy. The legislation of Bangladesh includes 300 seats. The political members are chosen for tenure of 5 years. In 2004 the Parliament of Bangladesh has passed a bill that include a provision of reserving 45 legislature seats for females that is to be disseminated among the political parties in fraction to their arithmetical forte in leading body (Islam & Pattak, 2017).  The process of parliament and the political discourse at the nationwide level are currently not conductive to broad socioeconomic expansion. The democracy of Bangladesh is fragile and young and state parties’ positions are feeble. The insufficient state structure, corruption are the hinder for development (Islam & Pattak, 2017). The transparency and accountability in the country is limited and that is enhancing the ground of corruption, and increasing mistrust among the community. The public government also lacks in monetary and satisfactory humanoid resources to accomplish its duties. It is important for the government of Bangladesh that to remove the obstacles for development such as ineffective state structure and corruption they has to provide their attention on the issues. In present to help the country the UNDP, Asian Development Bank and the World Bank arrived as survival donors within the area. In Bangladesh, the government has levied 15% of Corporate Income Tax, Value-added tax, Personal Income Tax, and Principal Direct Taxes on all significant customer products. The corporate tax rates for public companies are 27.5% and for all other companies is 37.5%.    

The legal system of Bangladesh is primarily created on the common law and the chief sources of the laws are the acts of Parliament.  There are many basic laws of Bangladesh such as company laws, contract laws, criminal procedural codes, civil procedural codes, penal code that are influenced by the English common laws. The major laws that can be affect foreign investment in the country are the companies Act of 1994, Overseas Private investment Act of 1980, the industrial policy act of 2005, the Bangladesh economic zones act of 2010, the industrial policy act of 2010, Bangladesh Export dispensation zones expert act of 1980. The Bangladesh Cabinet in 2016 that has replaced the Industrial policy act of 2010 approved the new Industrial policy act. the new act provide a facility to the foreign investors that if they are investing $ 1 million or has transfer $ 2 million to a recognised financial institution can apply for the citizenship of Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh will provide a facility of finance and policy support for high priority industries and creative industries. The legal policies of the government will provide specific importance to food processing, jute and jute good, leather and leather good, pharmaceuticals, information and communication technology, ready-made garments and agriculture (Export.gov, 2018). To settle the dispute with the forigen investors the Government of Bangladesh has signed the International Convention in May 1992 and all the disputes will be entertain there only.    

Political and Legal Analysis

Bangladesh is falls under a category of a developing countries and the market of the country is based on the mixed economy and it is the one the next eleven emerging markets. In 2018, the nominal Gross Domestic Product was $ 285 with the per capita income of $ 1754. After India and Pakistan, Bangladesh stood as a third largest economy in South Asia and second uppermost overseas conversation reserves after India. In 2015, the Bangladeshi Migration donated $ 15.31 billion in transfers. The private sector in Bangladesh has expanded rapidly with the conglomerated driving company (Goncharuk, 2016).  The major companies operates in the economy are leather goods, food processing, ceramics, chemicals, construction materials, energy, electronics, steel, shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals and textiles. In fiscal year 2014-2015 the export oriented industrialization has increased, in which export increased by 3.3%. However, the one obstacle the economy of Bangladesh faces is an insufficient power supply. According to the World Bank the major challenges of Bangladesh are weak public institution, corruption and poor governance. The agriculture sector of Bangladesh is the largest sector that has contributes 18.6% to the GDP of the country. the country is the seventh biggest producer of natural gas in Asia (Xenos, Vromen, & Loader, 2014).  The service sector of Bangladesh contributes around 51% to the GDP. Bangladesh is the place that attracts the tourist, the main attractions of the country are historical monuments, sea bathing, yachting, rowing, hiking, river cruising, water skiing, angling, wildlife, tribal people, forests, beaches and resorts. The travel and tourism industry has generated 1281500 jobs in the country.      

The culture of Bangladesh can be analyses by the way the people of Bangladesh live their lives. Bangladesh has a diverse and rich culture, the heritage of the country was 2500 years old and the refection of the heritage can be seen on its clothing, painting, music, literature, dance and architecture. The three chief religions that influence the culture of the country are Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism. The 19^th and 20^th residents of Bangladesh were involved in the arts for the development of Bengali culture like filmmaking, painting, music composing, thinkers, researchers, scientist, authors, saints and writing (Abdin, 2015).  There is several music instruments were played in the country among which the aboriginals of the country such as bamboo flute, drams, dotara etc develop some of them. The tribal dances are very popular among the Bangladeshis the countryside women and girls are very indulge in dancing and folk music. The clothing of Bangladesh is very traditional the women used to wear Saris marie that is expensive and famous. The celebration and Festival are the very important part of the culture of Bangladesh. Main events and festivals of the country are Durga pooja, Muharram, Eid-ul-Azha, Eid-ul-Fitr, Pohela Baishakh etc.     

The ethics and social responsibility in Bangladesh is governed by its corporate social responsibility policy that is mention in the Company Law 1994. The concept of the corporate social responsibility integrated with the environment and social concerns of the business operation. Social responsibility is not only about fulfilling the legal requirement of the country it also involves the companies responsibility toward human capital, environment and building brand value in front of its stakeholders (Khatoon, Chokroborty & Doulah, 2018).  In Bangladesh, first peer group owns most of the family business and they are involved in the communal development work by providing charity. The most of the SME’s in the country falls under the informal sectors that are having low administration structure and resources to address the communal and moral issues. These boundaries drive the top organisation of local government to think only about the profit expansion rather than doing work for planet and people.          

Conclusion:

To conclude, while analysing the microenvironment conditions of the Bangladesh few factors was been considered such as political, legal, economic, cultural and ethics and social responsibility. After analysing these factors is been found out that Bangladesh is a developing country and due to this reason the company can face many issues and the establishment of the biasness will get effect. The system of the country is corrupt and the resources available are very limited. However, the company deals in travel and hotel booking for that Bangladesh is the good option because the country is full of tourist attractions, rich in culture and people out there in country are helpful. For the Student flight centre can expand their business in Bangladesh.     

References:

Abdin, M.J. (2015). Foreign Direct Investment in Bangladesh: Trends, Challenges and Recommendatios. International Journal of Economics & Management Sciences, 4(27). 21-23

Abdullah, R., Monsoor, T., Johari, F., & Mohd Radzi, W. (2015). Financial support for women under Islamic family law in Bangladesh and Malaysia. Asian Journal of Women's Studies, 21(4), 363-383.

Afroj, A. (2013). Business Ethics and corporate social responsibilities. Asian Journal of Business and Management, 1(1), 28-34.   

Ashraf, M. A. (2016). Econometric analysis of the impact of domestic rice procurement policy on producer price: the case of rice in Bangladesh. Jurnal Agro Ekonomi, 26(1), 80-89.

Export.gov. (2018). Laws and Regulations on Foreign Direct Investment. Retrieved From: https://www.export.gov/article?id=Bangladesh-Legal-Regime

Goncharuk, A. G. (2016). Banking sector challenges in research. Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 5(1), 34-39.

Islam, M., & Pattak, D. C. (2017). Impact of Macro Environmental Factors on Garments Industry That Drives Export in Bangladesh. Studies in Business and Economics, 12(2), 100-111.

Khatoon, A., Chokroborty, A., & Doulah, M. (2018). Doing Business in Bangladesh Retrieved From: https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/1-504-7011?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&comp=pluk&bhcp=1

Morshed, T. (2017). People Repubilc of Bangladesh. Retrieved From: https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/bangladesh.htm

Student Flight. (2018). About Us. Retrieved From: https://www.studentflights.com.au/about-us

Xenos, M., Vromen, A., & Loader, B. D. (2014). The great equalizer? Patterns of social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies. Information, Communication & Society, 17(2), 151-167.