Bottomless* Basket

- American Secretary of State Henry Alfred Kissinger on Bangladesh, 1972

Starting with democracy, to supposedly central planning, to a number of military overhaul, back
to democracy (with a twist of interim government) to the current state of confusion
Bangladesh has gone through more political changes in its 45 years than United States has gone
through last two centuries. Unlike its politics, the economy of the country has seen a less
dramatic shift. In this period of time, the country has seen the contribution of agriculture in the
economy decreasing from 52% (1972) to 20% (2014) and rise in the service sector. Bangladesh
is home to the concept of microfinance, including the Nobel Peace Prize-winning microfinance
institution Grameen Bank and the non-governmental development agency BRAC. The economic
growth of Bangladesh is mainly attributed to remittance, infrastructure, connectivity and women
education. Bangladesh has a HDI score of 0.570 and a 6% (+-) growth in GDP. But there is a lot
unseen in this picture.

Among the developing countries, Bangladesh is seen as an example in women empowerment

and public health. 81.2% of women participate in the primary education, whereas female literacy
rate in 1971 was 11%. Participation of women in the ready-made garment (RMG) sector was
observed and currently this sector covers of 81.69% of all export earnings from Bangladesh. In
public health, Infant Mortality Rate and under 5 mortality rate has come down to 3.33% and
4.1% in 2012 from 10% and 14.4% in 1990. Despite improved survival rates, nearly half of
children in the country have chronic malnutrition, a problem shared with all the neighboring
countries. Urbanization has decreased the total amount of cultivated land to a fraction and
agricultural inventions has increased the crop productivity by several folds.
Amongst all this success, 47 million people are still living in extreme poverty (below $1.9 a day).
Bangladesh spends over 2 percent of its GDP on safety net programs but reaches only a third of
the people below the poverty line. Political influence, nepotism, corruption, lack of transparent
government bureaucracy and lack of freedom of speech has made the system work in favor of
people with capital. Alongside, lack of regular power supply has hindered the growth of new
businesses. Currently, the average time required to start a new business in Bangladesh is 20
days. Also, over the past 10 years, Bangladesh has faced criticisms due to lack of facilities for
labors in factories and use of child labor. Other than these, traffic and waste management has
remained a thing of concern for the government.

In 2009, the government aimed to digitalize the country through a project called Access to
Information a2i. Also, we have seen a growth in financial inclusion, especially through digital
services like bKash. For more even growth in the future, IT and infrastructure development
should be prioritized and necessary projects should be undertaken to make the market system
work for the people living in extreme poverty.