Corruption has long been considered perhaps the biggest impediment to Bangladesh’s future as a prosperous economy. The previous government, despite stating numerous times about its zero tolerance policy when it comes to corruption, is now slowly being exposed for all but facilitating it, which has left long lasting effects on the economy and indeed our business landscape.
According to a survey conducted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), nearly 17% of all businesses identified corruption as the primary issue when it comes to conducting operations. It is worth noting that the survey was conducted during the tenure of the previous Awami League government, however CPD also concluded that, under the previous government, Bangladesh’s overall business climate had been nothing short of restrictive while only a select few groups saw any semblance of progress.
While these extreme levels of bureaucratic red tape and a rampant culture of bribery all but reached critical mass during the past 15 years of AL’s misrule, Bangladesh has always fared poorly when it comes to ease of doing business due to these reasons.
It is imperative that the interim government’s reforms for Bangladesh make space for dealing with corruption within our business landscape. Given the state of our economy, attracting more foreign investment is going to be crucial for us even in the short term. What’s more is that stifling our business climate does a complete disservice to our many promising local entrepreneurs who have been left disillusioned by the monstrous levels of corruption they have had to deal with.
Until and unless corruption is rooted out of our business and investment landscape, Bangladesh will continue to suffer from unemployment and a floundering economy. There is no other alternative for Bangladesh 2.0.
Saturday, July 25, 2026
