Bangladesh has quite a few homegrown industries, from electronics & white goods (Walton Digitech), industrial cranes, power generation equipment (transformers, etc, by Energypac), high quality processed steel (GPH Ispat), reasonably successful pharma industry, and so on.
Import dependencies have shrunk drastically over the last few decades, within the aforementioned domains. For a geographically small country like Bangladesh, with agricultural background, it could be far worse. Though most of the aforementioned industries so far have been aimed at the domestic market, with negligible export volumes. Some, like Walton IBU, have started to export high-tech manufactured goods, selling budget-ranged LED tvs and washing machines. It's a good start, but it's early days. So yes, we have electronic industries in BD, but we're not an electronics exporting country yet. And I don't really see any policy decisions made recently, that aspire to make it one. Only individual companies like Walton are going ahead with such bold initiatives.
On the subject matter of technological autonomy, self-reliance, etc. Countries like Vietnam, which are so insanely effective at attracting FDI, find their domestic industries often struggle to breathe. I don't know if that's being turned around now, not saying it can't. They are accumulating the capital and experience, so it may be possible. Even companies within Bangladesh have raised this concern. GPH Ispat has said they'll struggle to compete with large multinational companies like TATA steel if they were to operate in Bangladesh. This is a difficult balance master. On the top of my head, the only country with 3rd world origins that have managed to pull it off is China. Incredibly good at attracting FDI, but also globally competitive industries of their own. But yes, Bangladesh is terrible at attracting FDI, and that needs to change. 75% literacy rate, lack of infastructure, dysfunctional bureaucracy, corruption are to blame. And we aren't technologically advanced enough to go it alone either.
The pattern of Bangladeshi industries goes like this. Bangladesh could not attract any investments in the past (still very low now). So Bangladeshi industrialists, through their own initiatives, made their own. Develop competency, then hope to attract FDI. A lot of them flopped. Bangladesh's economic complexity ranking actually gone down from the 1990s (when her per capita income was around $400, IE near the bottom rank). Probably because many industrialists, especially after economic liberalization, started up new industries across the country. A lot of them flopped, particularly around heavy engineering. So they were no longer there. Only the sustainable ones remained, such as RMG, pharma, etc etc. Others have tried, and they failed, for a variety of reasons.
Having worked in A*STAR SIMtech in Singapore, a government-owned research lab that conducts scientific research to enrich the Singaporean industry, I can categorically say, for such an advanced, knowledge-based economy as Singapore, even they cannot manufacture their own machine tools or scientific instruments that are required for R&D for high-tech industries. And neither is there a desire to do so. Though one caveat, companies like Makino, Oerlikon, Toshiba, Siemens, even Rolls Royce PLC (aerospace) have R&D in Singapore (at SIMtech, along with NTU, NSU uni's). For small countries like Singapore, it's more economically sustainable to consume certain technologies, in order to develop others. When I went to SIMtech, I did research for Razer (laptops) on Magnesium castings, using Liquid Forging. All the equipment in my I've used was of either Japanese or German origin. It's the same story in the industry itself.
For a lot of industries, there's literally no substitute for experience. A great example (on top of my head) being aero engines. How many countries have their own aerospace industries? Other than the big 4 (USA, France, Russia, USA), quite a few. Sweden, India, Brazil, Indonesia even... And how many can make their own gas turbines? USA, Russia, China, France, UK. And that's pretty much it. Not even an advanced country like Sweden, South Korea, or Japan, can manufacture medium-to-large jet engines, certainly not military ones. So they buy from western companies like Rolls Royce, GE, Safran, etc etc. And it's pretty much down to a single component, compressor turbine blades. The single most important component for a Jet Engines performance, reliability, efficiency, etc. The manufacturing process to build these blades are incredibly complex, very expensive, and requires the sort of know-how that is very difficult to acquire, even for advanced countries like South Korea and Japan.
There is no book that explains the know-how of certain manufacturing processes well enough, for others to replicate it. Turbine compressor blades being one of them, but it holds true for many other industries. You will find an enormous amount of publications in the theme, but I challenge you to read them, then come up with any sort of feasible plan to start up your own gas-turbine manufacturing company. And it's similar to other industries. Do you really think Bangla-fucking Desh has the R&D experience to develop advanced tooling machines that can satisfy the demands of modern industry, in the same way, Makino, Mazak, Liebherr et al can? Bangladesh doesn't have experience managing R&D in the first place!
As others have said, the most moronic thing for a developing country to do is trying to sprint like Ussain bolt, before they can even walk. Lee Kuan Yew knew this well. Heck, he even said (in the 80s), "Singapore is a nation of technicians, not Scientists". But today, they are among the leaders of R&D in Asia. Bangladesh is a f*cking infant. Have realistic expectations. Look at the building blocks that already exist, and work from there.
Personally, from my "unexpaaart" knowledge on industrial policy, Bangladesh will do well to attract more FDI, build capital, and substantially boost its human resources through education. Even compared to India, Bangladesh's R&D and scientific output per capita are minuscule. Use the money from exports (still too low tbh) etc, and invest in education ASAP. Particularly pre-workforce education. The education standards of our populace are probably the no1 reason for the bottlenecking of our industrialization and modernization efforts. And there's no substitute for it. Don't be like Pakistan, who thought otherwise
