Anisur Rahman Sinha is the first Bengali in the history of entrepreneurship in the Bengal Delta who has perfected the art of economy of scale in our manufacturing. Garment manufacturers like HaMeem, Nassa, Mandal Al Muslim and Standard copied his success and built up some of the giant clothing plants in Bangladesh, turning the nation into the world's second largest apparel manufacturer in the process. Yet, the art that he perfected betrayed him most. Belatedly he learnt that the economy of scale can be a giant bleeding pool if there were any disruptions in any of its massive supply chain.

But most manufacturers I spoke to blamed chronic labour unrest at the Opex factories for its sudden shutdown. Whatever union activism was there worked against the factories' future. And then there were some conspiracy theories, which must be looked into by the Bangladeshi factory authorities and the BGMEA. Had this giant factory been closed in any countries in Asia, it might have triggered massive outcry and a demand for a probe and vivisection into its collapse.

We must get to the bottom to know what actually went wrong at Opex. Anisur Rahman Sinha can now easily sell the factories to foreign investors for more than a billion dollars as his plants are still some of the finest in the country. But we must know why the country's one of the largest employers could not stay afloat despite enjoying some of the best competitive advantages over its rivals both at home and abroad.

#From Mr. Shafiqul Alam's Facebook status