Volume 11 covers a broad spectrum of issues which concern Bangladesh’s external sector performance and the economy’s interface with developments in the regional and global contexts. The seventeen chapters in the volume are organised under three interconnected thematic clusters—Domestic Policy and Sectoral Issues, Deepening Regional Cooperation and Towards Sustainable Global Integration. The chapters, contributed by leading scholars of the country, focus on how Bangladesh’s trade, investment and economic policies have evolved over the years, how these have impacted the external sector performance and how these need to be reformed and reframed as Bangladesh moves forward in the twenty-first century.
As Bangladesh is currently undertaking a journey of dual graduation—as a middle-income country and given its anticipated LDC graduation in 2026—issues of strengthened regional and global integration will become increasingly important. The rich discussion and analyses presented in the volume deal with various aspects of Bangladesh’s external sector and offer concrete suggestions to address emergent and emerging challenges and recommend strategies and policies to avoid the middle-income trap and move towards sustainable graduation.
Hopefully, the volume will be essential reading for those keen to understand the Bangladesh development narrative, the challenges the economy is facing, and the opportunities it could take advantage of as the country navigates a dynamic geoeconomics in a fast-changing regional and global context.
