Bangladesh’s progress over the past two decades certainly has been extraordinary, leading the country to finally shedding its tag as a “least developed country” and its imminent graduation to the status of “developing country.” However, given the turbulent state of our economy and dwindling foreign reserves, there are now genuine concerns about whether our graduation to developing status is going to be a potential rough landing.
According to Mashiur Rahman, the economic adviser to the prime minister, Bangladesh is currently not seeking to postpone its graduation, which is set to happen in November 2026. However, it’s his sentiment that Bangladesh would need to simply work harder in order to power past the fact that we have failed to meet some of the preparation requirements within the allotted time that gives us some pause.
No economy, however bright its future prospects may be, is safe from unforeseen shocks, as both the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the past few years have shown. Given that our economy still relies on one major industry to prop it up and our overseas workforce are still predominantly un-skilled, there is very little scope for us to keep up our economic momentum.
What exactly does “working harder” mean in this context?
Experts have, in the past, expressed that the best way for Bangladesh to ensure a smooth graduation would be to focus on a few key bottlenecks which are still hamstringing our trade and commerce. Bottlenecks such as our export basket, which has lacked any semblance of diversity for a long time now, and dwindling foreign investment as a result of our lack of ease in doing business. Exploring newer destinations and investing in promising new industries can see a majority of these bottlenecks be eliminated, needless to say.
The government needs to be more transparent about its preparation measures for our graduation -- vague promises without any clear game-plans simply will not do at this point.economic d
