Bangladesh ConstructionJune 20266 min read
When I founded Kaymonto in 2013, the commercial fit-out market in Dhaka operated on relationships, not systems. A client needed an office refurbished. They called an architect they knew. The architect called a contractor they trusted. The contractor mobilised. Two years later, the client had an office — usually over budget, often late, with a snagging list that was never fully resolved.
That model has changed significantly since 2013. It has not changed enough.
Client sophistication has increased. The international organisations that have been operating in Dhaka for a decade or more — banks, FMCG multinationals, energy companies, development finance institutions — have been through enough construction projects to know what good project management looks like. They ask for it now, and they know the difference when they do not get it.
When I was preparing Kaymonto's first proposals in 2013, the concept of an independent Project Management Consultancy was unfamiliar to most local clients. The default assumption was that the architect managed the project. Explaining why that was a conflict of interest required significant effort. Today, that conversation is shorter. International clients arrive with procurement frameworks that require independent project management as a condition of approval. The education has happened — partly through experience, partly through contact with global standards.
The contractor market has matured. The technical capability of established Bangladeshi contractors has improved substantially over 13 years. Dhaka now has a tier of main contractors who can execute complex multi-discipline fit-outs to international specification — fire-rated partitions, controlled-access server rooms, raised access flooring, building management systems — to a standard that would have required an expatriate contractor in 2013.
This matters for international clients because it changes the risk profile of their procurement. In 2013, a multinational relocating to a new Dhaka headquarters carried significant technical execution risk. Today, that risk is manageable with the right procurement process and the right supervision structure. The contractor capability exists. The management discipline to ensure it is deployed consistently is what independent PMC provides.
Documentation standards have improved. In 2013, a project "record" was typically whatever the architect filed. As-built drawings were often the GFC drawings with handwritten annotations. O&M manuals were a folder of product data sheets, if they existed at all.
That standard has risen, driven by international clients who require documentation at handover as a condition of final payment. Kaymonto has contributed to this shift on every project we have managed — requiring contractors to maintain documentation standards throughout the project, not compile them retrospectively at handover. A complete, auditable project record is a deliverable, not an afterthought.
The variation culture persists. The tendency to submit variation claims for works that were always within the original scope has not materially decreased since 2013. The mechanism is the same: tender low, mobilise, then look for opportunities to recover margin through variations. The sophistication of the submissions has increased — some contractor variation packages now arrive with detailed contractual arguments — but the underlying commercial behaviour is consistent.
The antidote is also consistent: independent commercial management from the start, a complete design set at tender, and a PMC with the authority and the will to challenge claims that are not justified. This is not new. It is what Kaymonto was founded to provide. The fact that it is still necessary 13 years later tells you something about the structural incentives in the market.
The talent gap in site management remains. Dhaka has excellent architects. It has capable structural and MEP engineers. It has experienced quantity surveyors. What it does not have in sufficient numbers is experienced, qualified construction site managers — people who can run a large, multi-trade fit-out site to programme, maintain quality standards, and manage sub-contractors without daily supervision.
This gap is why independent site supervision from a PMC is not a luxury — it is a structural requirement for any project where the client cannot staff their own full-time site presence. A contractor's site team, however capable individually, is managing the contractor's interests. The client needs someone managing theirs.
Local regulatory knowledge remains a barrier for international entrants. Bangladesh's building regulations — the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC), RAJUK requirements, fire safety standards, occupational health and safety provisions — are substantive and have been updated significantly over the past decade. An international client arriving in Dhaka with their standard procurement framework and their regional technical standards will encounter local requirements that differ in ways that matter.
This is not a criticism of the regulatory environment — some of the BNBC updates reflect genuine improvements in safety standards. It is an observation about how important local knowledge is when managing compliance. A project that satisfies the international client's specification but is not compliant with BNBC cannot receive an occupancy certificate. That detail is not theoretical. It is a project blocker.
Three things have not changed in 13 years and are unlikely to change in the next 13:
The relationship between design completeness and variation exposure. The more that is left unresolved at tender — uncoordinated MEP, incomplete specifications, undefined scope interfaces — the more variation claims will arrive during construction. Every international client who has ever run a project in Dhaka without an independent PMC has experienced this. The ones who engage us from the start do not.
The importance of independent payment certification. In Bangladesh, contractors typically submit monthly payment applications that reflect their assessment of progress. Without independent certification, those applications are usually paid — because the alternative is a dispute with the contractor who is building your facility. Independent certification changes that equation. The PMC certifies against verified progress, not claimed progress.
The project is not over at practical completion. The period from practical completion to financial closeout and full document handover takes three to six months on a well-managed project. It takes longer on projects where the contractor has outstanding commercial disputes or incomplete documentation obligations. International clients with short operating mandates in Bangladesh tend to treat practical completion as the end of the engagement. When they do, they inherit open issues that become someone else's problem — usually whoever runs the facility next.
Get your independent PMC appointed before your contractor. Not at the same time. Before.
The PMC writes the brief. The PMC runs the procurement. The PMC defines the programme and the governance framework. A PMC appointed after the contractor is on site is managing a project that someone else set up — and the structure will reflect that.
Bangladesh's commercial construction market will continue to mature. The contractors will get better. The regulatory framework will develop. The documentation standards will improve. What will not change is that the client's interests and the contractor's interests are not the same — and that gap requires an independent party to manage it.
That is what Kaymonto was built to do. After 13 years, it remains necessary.
Describe what you're working on and we'll tell you where independent management adds the most value.