COMMENT: Bangladesh is the largest least developed country (LDC), according to the United Nations, in terms of population and economic size but even with the restraining influence of COVID-19 it is expected to graduate from this status by the mid-2020s, writes Mike Mundy.
“Bangladesh has seen broad-based gains in health, education, infant mortality and life expectancy,” says Daniel Gay, LDC expert in UN DESA’s Development Policy and Analysis Division. “These have in turn driven economic growth, and latterly reduced economic vulnerability, so it’s really a success story.”
As the UN points out: “Since 1996 the per capita national income in Bangladesh has outstripped the LDC average and has risen above the threshold used by the CDP,” (an independent panel of development experts from around the world that meet every three years to review the list of LDCs). “The economy,” the UN elaborates, “has developed largely through textile and garment exports. Remittances, natural gas, shipbuilding and seafood as well as information communications and pharmaceuticals which are all emerging sources of foreign exchange and economic growth.”
Overall, it is manifestly clear that Bangladesh is on an upward path and furthermore, as our lead feature this month explains – page 21, it is fast removing the obstacles that have in the past impeded the installation of modern new port capacity. Five major new port projects are now being progressed and the first new containerport project involving foreign expertise has just been announced. Others will follow.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh still faces immense challenges in putting in place the right port and connecting hinterland infrastructure. Not the least of these is achieving this in a sustainable, eco-friendly, way sympathetic to the human condition as well as trade requirements.
Bangladesh holds 165 million people in an area smaller than Illinois. Chittagong, the largest of the eight administrative areas of Bangladesh and home to its main port, which presently handles over 90 per cent of the country’s annual trade, contains an estimated 40 million people.
Couple this reality with the fact that most of the country’s land area is no higher above sea level than New York City, and during the rainy season more than one-fifth of the country can be flooded at once, then the scale of Bangladesh’s sustainable port and related infrastructure development challenge becomes readily apparent.
Bangladesh’s transition to a modern port system promises to offer many interesting lessons to other developing nations seeking to pursue a similar path.
