The cloak of secrecy has finally been lifted. The non-disclosure agreement that kept the Bangladesh-US "reciprocal tariff" deal hidden from public scrutiny has been pulled back, and Bangladeshis can now see what was negotiated in their name. On first reading, this does not look like an agreement be

Bangladesh’s interim government was born not at the ballot box but in the streets. The July 2024 uprising swept away a government that many citizens viewed as unaccountable and abusive, creating a dangerous vacuum that needed to be filled quickly to prevent drift or disorder. Professor Muhamm

Bangladesh is a young country trapped in old politics. The median age is just over 27, yet the people making national decisions are often three times older. The caretaker government led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus brings global respect, but its makeup tells a different story: aside from a coup

Bangladesh owes much of its economic rise to the predictability and stability of global trade rules. For decades, the World Trade Organization (WTO) provided exactly that: a system where a young, export-driven country could trust that its garments, pharmaceuticals, and services would be traded on t

Bangladesh's economic success story is inseparable from global trade. Over the past three decades, our garment industry has become the backbone of the economy, employing millions and accounting for more than 80 percent of export earnings. The international rules-based trading system, anchored in th

It has become a standard refrain in the lexicon of international development institutions and local protagonists: Bangladesh suffers from an abysmally low tax-to-GDP ratio. At barely 7.5 per cent, it trails not only global averages but also regional peers such as Nepal, whose ratio hovers around 18

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been a cornerstone of economic transformation in many developing countries. It brings not only capital but also global market access, cutting-edge technology, managerial know-how, and integration into international production networks. Countries like Vietnam and

In the globalised economy, the countries that have risen fastest and sustained growth longest are those that embraced exports. The 2008 World Bank Growth Report is unequivocal: countries with outward-oriented policies consistently outperformed those looking inward. For Bangladesh, a country that ha