When the Europeans set up trading posts around the area of Bangladesh, the British dominated the region. As such, Bangladesh was part of British India until the region was split up into India and Pakistan in 1947. Pakistan was comprised of West Pakistan (current Pakistan) and East Bengal (current Bangladesh. This awkward arrangement of a two-part country with its territorial units 1,600 km apart left the Bengalis marginalized and dissatisfied. In 1971, East Bengal separated from Pakistan and was renamed Bangladesh. Ever since, economic development has been very slow, hampered by political turmoil. It is one of the poorest countries in the world with nominal GDP per head of only USD 1,483 and 36% of the population living below the poverty line of USD 1 per day. The low level of human development is also reflected in the UN’s human development index, which ranks Bangladesh 146th out of 182 countries.
Economic development is also hampered by a high vulnerability to inundations. Each year, about a third of the country is flooded during the annual monsoon rains. This severely affects the agricultural sector, washing away crops. While the agricultural sector is not especially important in terms of economic size, since it accounts only for 18% of GDP, it employs 45% of the country’s labor force. The industrial sector contributes 29% to GDP and within this sector the textiles and garment sector is a key growth driver. Unfortunately, the industrial sector is plagued by the terrible infrastructure and frequent power outages, which have become structural impediments to a higher level of economic growth. The large services sector, which contributes 52% to GDP, is not left unaffected by the power outages. Furthermore, the level of corruption is very high and widespread, affecting the overall business environment.
Even so, Bangladesh has been able to post surprisingly robust and stable rates of economic expansion of the last couple of