13 years in a Malaysian furniture factory, then a six-room rented workshop: 7 staff, Tk 30,000-40,000 a month

Golam Rabbani, 42, of Veti village in Raninagar upazila, Naogaon, went to Malaysia in 2004. He first worked for a company and then spent about 13 years in a furniture factory, where he learned to carve designs into wood on digital machines. About a year and a half before the report he came home and rented six rooms in Abadpukur bazar to open a workshop called Messrs Sharmin Furniture and Door. Seven employees now work there, including a designer. For lack of space he has not been able to run the workshop at full capacity. Even so, he earns Tk 30,000 to Tk 40,000 a month. The report gives no figures for rent, capital or costs, so it is not clear how much of that is net profit. In Rabbani's view, lakhs of Bangladeshi workers gain experience in different jobs abroad, and instead of sitting idle at home they can put that experience to use. The same report mentions another returnee from the same area who started a rope factory with 20-25 workers at first but closed it six months earlier because of financial difficulty and went back to Malaysia. So foreign skills help, but whether a business at home lasts depends on capital and conditions.