The Economy

“ O Sun, give us light and vital heat
In our dark and misty rooms.
Provide warmth also
To that naked lad on the street.”

Bangladesh is primarily an agricultural country. The strongest features of its agriculture are the fertile soil and an abundance of water (and some times lack of it due to draught and control of water of the Ganges by India), and sunshine. The major agricultural crops of Bangladesh are rice, jute (once known as the “golden fibre” with processing plants at Dundee in Scotland), tea, sugar cane, wheat, tobacco, potato and oil seeds etc. Floods and other calamities in the last decade caused serious damage to the agricultural crops.

Bangladesh is far from being an industrial economy. Ready-made garments occupy the topmost position among the exportable items. Jute, tea, frozen shrimps, fish, leather goods and handicrafts are also major exportable commodities.

Bangladesh has a huge natural gas reserve. There is a strong possibility of oil deposits.

There is a great difference between the rich and poor, ranging from the urban people of Dhaka (the capital of Bangladesh) to farmers living in remote villages. 86% of the Bangladeshi people live in poverty.

Bangladesh plays an important role in South Asia, where the policies of major international powers interact and shape the policies of regional states especially India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s international contribution in the area of micro-credit is the Grameen Bank- a unique banking system where lack of credit worthiness is the qualification to obtain a loan.