| East Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955,
but the awkward arrangement of a two-part country with its territorial
units separated by 1,600 km left the Bengalis marginalized and dissatisfied.
East Pakistan seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971 and
was renamed Bangladesh. A military-backed caretaker regime suspended
planned parliamentary elections in January 2007 in an effort to reform
the political system and root out corruption; the regime has pledged
new democratic elections by the end of 2008. About a third of this
extremely poor country floods annually during the monsoon rainy season,
hampering economic development.
The economy has grown 5-6% over the past few years despite inefficient
state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources,
insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic
reforms. Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed
nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the
service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in
the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product.
Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas,
mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth. |
About Bangladesh
