Dreaming a Developed Bangladesh

Phase 1: Bangladesh Economy at a Glance 

Bangladesh achieved its independence from Pakistan on 16 th December, 1971 through a disastrous war. Armies of Pakistan destroyed the total basic structure of Bangladesh and at the meanwhile they killed the scholars of all fields.

Though by the flow of time, Bangladesh has become the 48th largest economy of the world with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$ 224.889 billion in 2008, declared by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Bangladesh has got 6.5% GDP growth over the past few years on an average. In 2009, the country has experienced GDP growth of 6% as per the budgetary declaration by Abul Maal Abdul Muhit.

It is clear here, that the GDP growth rate has fallen slightly because of the great pressure imposed on its economy by world wide great depression. At the mean time, occurrence of SIDR, AILA, twice disastrous flood & large spreading motive of Bird Flue greatly damaged the allover economic activities of the country. It is estimated that the country has suffered a loss of more or less, US$ 3.5 billion. The country is still struggling to come out from the affect of those hazards and has aimed to modify its most labor intensive sector agriculture with the touch of new technologies as agriculture is the most essential sector to fulfill the demand of food by the inhabitant & of raw materials by the industries.

In recent the country is facing lacking in gas production, which is forcing the country to trade off between the production of electricity & fertilizer, varying on the time. This unexpected trade off situation is really too much injurious to run & expand either industrial or agricultural sector or both simultaneously. And so on, daily shortage of 1500 Megawatt in electricity production causes load shedding countrywide, makes an unavoidable obstacle in service sector.

In spite of the political instabilities, labor unrest & disastrous environment the import- export exchange & remittance are is still on a sound basis. The country's export earning during the fiscal year 2008- 2009 totaled to US$ 12.82 billion against US$ 11.37 billion of the former fiscal year, marking a rise by US$ 1.45 billion or 12.76%. And the remittance from the expatriate Bangladeshis exceeded US$ 9.0 billion in the first 10 months of the current fiscal, marking 16.72% growth over the same period of last fiscal year.

In recent, Bangladesh Bank has purchased 10 tons of gold bullion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the price of US$ 1256 per ounce. And now, the price of gold bullion is US$ 1300 per ounce, which is the highest over all the time.

After viewing the past & current economic condition of Bangladesh, we can hope to overlap the present obstacles by applying some new ideas.      (To be continued)



Enamul Hafiz Latifee
enamul.hafiz.sust@gmail.com