The United States aid program to independent Bangladesh began
even before the United States formally established diplomatic
relations with the new nation in April 1972. Large quantities of
emergency food aid were sent to help cope with the postwar famine
situation. Project assistance through the United States Agency for
International Development (AID) began in 1973 with a major program
of reconstruction and infrastructure rehabilitation. In the course
of time, that emphasis evolved into economic development focused
primarily on three broad sectors: improved soil fertility, food
security, and increased off-farm employment. By September 1987,
United States assistance totaled US$2.8 billion. The United States
was the most important donor until the early 1980s when Japanese
aid reached similar levels.
Food aid has been a mainstay of the AID program. Through 1987
the United States provided more than 6.5 million tons of wheat,
more than 1 million tons of rice, and some 350,000 tons of edible
oil. Since 1979 all such aid has been on a grant basis. The Public
Law 480 (PL-480) program of food and other agricultural commodity
assistance has accounted for half of the dollar value of United
States government aid over the years. In the mid-1980s, the PL-480
program ranged from US$85 million to US$110 million per year. In FY
1986, a high year, the United States provided 586,000 tons of
wheat, 63,000 tons of rice, almost 25,000 tons of edible oil, and
58,000 bales of cotton. Commercially procured quantities of those
commodities by Bangladesh in that period included 1.12 million tons
of wheat, 34,000 tons of rice, 146,000 tons of edible oil, and
179,000 bales of raw cotton.
The PL-480 program fit into an overall development strategy to
increase agricultural production and provide rural employment. Thus
the wheat provided under Title II in the late 1980s was part of
food-for-work programs, providing payment to workers who upgraded
local footpaths and seasonal roads. The sales proceeds of
supplemental PL-480 shipments financed a program of bridge and
culvert construction on these food for work roads.
The commodities shipped under the larger PL-480 Title III
program in the mid-1980s provided support to domestic food
production and ensured that food was available to the most
nutritionally disadvantaged population. Local currency generated
from sales financed agricultural research, irrigation, and
employment--projects essential to the Bangladesh government's goal
of national food self-sufficiency--and increased personal incomes,
thereby effectively increasing demand for food.
Other than food aid, the dollar value of United States
development assistance stabilized between US$75 million and US$85
million annually in the mid-1980s and declined to US$58.5 million
for FY 1988, largely because of general pressures on the United
States budget for foreign development programs. The long-term trend
remained intact, with the cash value of United States assistance
about evenly divided between food aid and project assistance.
As the "largest poorest" country, and because its government
has been hospitable to foreign assistance, Bangladesh has been
chosen by several of the so-called richer smaller countries as a
country of concentration for their own efforts. Thus, in addition
to the programs of Britain, Japan, and West Germany, significant
aid programs were initiated by Canada, Sweden, Finland, the
Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, and others, in which each
country concentrated on areas where it possessed special expertise.
In the mid-1980s, a number of these donor countries--calling
themselves "the like-minded donors"--jointly studied the trend of
development assistance in Bangladesh. They concluded that the
quality of life in Bangladesh was declining for the vast rural
majority, and they faulted the way the Bangladesh government
determined and administered its development priorities and the way
the aid donors organized and carried out their own assistance
programs. They presented a report to the Bangladesh Aid Group in
1986 suggesting changes in emphasis in favor of greater
concentration on programs responsive to the deepest needs of the
poor: better health care, better nutrition, greater literacy, a
more effective approach to family planning, and greater economic
opportunities for poor and landless farmers and for women. Although
the analysis and conclusions engendered some controversy, the
report influenced the direction of aid efforts by the entire
Bangladesh Aid Group, including the most important donor and the
group's founder, the World Bank.
Economic assistance has come to Bangladesh through the Soviet
Union and East European countries and through oil-producing members
of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Much of the aid from
these donors has taken the form of construction, equipment, and
training. Moscow committed US$132 million for aid to Bangladesh
immediately after independence, but disbursement proved to be very
slow. In subsequent years, the Soviets figured prominently in power
generation, and as of the end of 1987 the Soviet Union appeared to
have agreed to extend more aid for power generation, transmission,
and distribution and also for oil exploration.
Although relatively modest in monetary terms, the assistance of
private voluntary organizations from the United States and
elsewhere has also been important. They have offered assistance on
a grant basis in fields where return-on-investment criteria cannot
be applied, such as emergency relief, medical services, and basic
education. In addition, because of their modest scale and
insulation from international politics, these organizations can
sometimes venture into activities with a high degree of social
experimentation, sometimes producing models to be replicated on a
larger scale by official development assistance. Aside from such
well-known secular organizations as the International Red Cross and
CARE, most of the private voluntary organizations had religious
affiliations.
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Background | | Europeans began to set up trading posts in the area of Bangladesh in the 16th century; eventually the British came to dominate the region and it became part of British India. In 1947, West Pakistan and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated from India (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of Pakistan. 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, emergency caretaker regime suspended parliamentary elections planned for January 2007 in an effort to reform the political system and root out corruption. In contrast to the strikes and violent street rallies that had marked Bangladeshi politics in previous years, the parliamentary elections finally held in late December 2008 were mostly peaceful and Sheikh HASINA Wajed was reelected prime minister. About a third of this extremely poor country floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic development.
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Location | | Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India
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Area(sq km) | | total: 143,998 sq km
land: 130,168 sq km
water: 13,830 sq km
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Geographic coordinates | | 24 00 N, 90 00 E
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Land boundaries(km) | | total: 4,246 km
border countries: Burma 193 km, India 4,053 km
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Coastline(km) | | 580 km
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Climate | | tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October)
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Elevation extremes(m) | | lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
highest point: Keokradong 1,230 m
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Natural resources | | natural gas, arable land, timber, coal
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Land use(%) | | arable land: 55.39%
permanent crops: 3.08%
other: 41.53% (2005)
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Irrigated land(sq km) | | 47,250 sq km (2003)
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Total renewable water resources(cu km) | | 1,210.6 cu km (1999)
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Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural) | | total: 79.4 cu km/yr (3%/1%/96%)
per capita: 560 cu m/yr (2000)
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Natural hazards | | droughts; cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during the summer monsoon season
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Environment - current issues | | many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land; waterborne diseases prevalent in surface water; water pollution, especially of fishing areas, results from the use of commercial pesticides; ground water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the country; soil degradation and erosion; deforestation; severe overpopulation
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Environment - international agreements | | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
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Geography - note | | most of the country is situated on deltas of large rivers flowing from the Himalayas: the Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually empty into the Bay of Bengal
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Population | | 156,050,883 (July 2009 est.)
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Age structure(%) | | 0-14 years: 34.6% (male 27,065,625/female 26,913,961)
15-64 years: 61.4% (male 45,222,182/female 50,537,052)
65 years and over: 4% (male 3,057,255/female 3,254,808) (2009 est.)
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Median age(years) | | total: 23.3 years
male: 22.9 years
female: 23.5 years (2009 est.)
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Population growth rate(%) | | 1.292% (2009 est.)
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Birth rate(births/1,000 population) | | 24.68 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
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Death rate(deaths/1,000 population) | | 9.23 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
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Net migration rate(migrant(s)/1,000 population) | | -2.53 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
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Urbanization(%) | | urban population: 27% of total population (2008)
rate of urbanization: 3.5% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
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Sex ratio(male(s)/female) | | at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.9 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female
total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
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Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births) | | total: 59.02 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 66.12 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 51.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
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Life expectancy at birth(years) | | total population: 60.25 years
male: 57.57 years
female: 63.03 years (2009 est.)
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Total fertility rate(children born/woman) | | 2.74 children born/woman (2009 est.)
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Nationality | | noun: Bangladeshi(s)
adjective: Bangladeshi
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Ethnic groups(%) | | Bengali 98%, other 2% (includes tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims) (1998)
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Religions(%) | | Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)
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Languages(%) | | Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English
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Country name | | conventional long form: People's Republic of Bangladesh
conventional short form: Bangladesh
local long form: Gana Prajatantri Banladesh
local short form: Banladesh
former: East Bengal, East Pakistan
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Government type | | parliamentary democracy
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Capital | | name: Dhaka
geographic coordinates: 23 43 N, 90 24 E
time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
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Administrative divisions | | 6 divisions; Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet
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Constitution | | 4 November 1972; effective 16 December 1972; suspended following coup of 24 March 1982; restored 10 November 1986; amended many times
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Legal system | | based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
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Suffrage | | 18 years of age; universal
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Executive branch | | chief of state: President Zillur RAHMAN (since 12 February 2009)
head of government: Prime Minister Sheikh HASINA Wajed (since 6 January 2009)
cabinet: Cabinet selected by the prime minister and appointed by the president
elections: president elected by National Parliament for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); last election held on 11 February 2009 (next scheduled election to be held in 2014)
election results: Zillur RAHMAN declared president-elect by the Election Commission on 11 February 2009 (sworn in on 12 February); he ran unopposed as president; percent of National Parliament vote - NA
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Legislative branch | | unicameral National Parliament or Jatiya Sangsad; 300 seats elected by popular vote from single territorial constituencies; members serve five-year terms
elections: last held 29 December 2008 (next to be held in 2013)
election results: percent of vote by party - AL 49%, BNP 33.2%, JP 7%, JIB 4.6%, other 6.2%; seats by party - AL 230, BNP 30, JP 27, JIB 2, other 11
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Judicial branch | | Supreme Court (the chief justices and other judges are appointed by the president)
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Political pressure groups and leaders | | Advocacy to End Gender-based Violence through the MoWCA (Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs)
other: environmentalists; Islamist groups; religious leaders; teachers; union leaders
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International organization participation | | ADB, ARF, BIMSTEC, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMIT, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
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Flag description | | green field with a large red disk shifted slightly to the hoist side of center; the red disk represents the rising sun and the sacrifice to achieve independence; the green field symbolizes the lush vegetation of Bangladesh
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Economy - overview | | The economy has grown 5-6% per year since 1996 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. In 2008 Bangladesh pursued a monetary policy aimed at maintaining high employment, but created higher inflation in the process.
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GDP (purchasing power parity) | | $226.4 billion (2008 est.)
$214 billion (2007 est.)
$201.5 billion (2006 est.)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
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GDP (official exchange rate) | | $84.2 billion (2008 est.)
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GDP - real growth rate(%) | | 5.8% (2008 est.)
6.2% (2007 est.)
6.4% (2006 est.)
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GDP - per capita (PPP) | | $1,500 (2008 est.)
$1,400 (2007 est.)
$1,300 (2006 est.)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
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GDP - composition by sector(%) | | agriculture: 19.1%
industry: 28.6%
services: 52.3% (2008 est.)
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Labor force | | 70.86 million
note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia; workers' remittances estimated at $4.8 billion in 2005-06. (2008 est.)
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Labor force - by occupation(%) | | agriculture: 63%
industry: 11%
services: 26% (FY95/96)
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Unemployment rate(%) | | 2.5% (2008 est.)
2.5% (2007 est.)
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Population below poverty line(%) | | 45% (2004 est.)
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Household income or consumption by percentage share(%) | | lowest 10%: 4.3%
highest 10%: 26.6% (2005)
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Distribution of family income - Gini index | | 33.2 (2005)
33.6 (1996)
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Investment (gross fixed)(% of GDP) | | 24.3% of GDP (2008 est.)
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Budget | | revenues: $8.825 billion
expenditures: $12.54 billion (2008 est.)
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Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%) | | 8.9% (2008 est.)
9.1% (2007 est.)
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Stock of money | | $9.294 billion (31 December 2008)
$8.444 billion (31 December 2007)
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Stock of quasi money | | $37.98 billion (31 December 2008)
$32.35 billion (31 December 2007)
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Stock of domestic credit | | $47.03 billion (31 December 2008)
$40.1 billion (31 December 2007)
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Market value of publicly traded shares | | $6.671 billion (31 December 2008)
$6.793 billion (31 December 2007)
$3.61 billion (31 December 2006)
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Economic aid - recipient | | $1.321 billion (2005)
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Public debt(% of GDP) | | 39.4% of GDP (2008 est.)
43% of GDP (2004 est.)
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Agriculture - products | | rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry
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Industries | | cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar
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Industrial production growth rate(%) | | 6.9% (2008 est.)
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Current account balance | | $1.032 billion (2008 est.)
$856.8 million (2007 est.)
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Exports | | $15.44 billion (2008 est.)
$12.47 billion (2007 est.)
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Exports - commodities(%) | | garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood
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Exports - partners(%) | | US 21%, Germany 13.2%, UK 8.6%, France 6.3%, Netherlands 4.7% (2008)
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Imports | | $21.51 billion (2008 est.)
$16.67 billion (2007 est.)
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Imports - commodities(%) | | machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement
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Imports - partners(%) | | China 14.7%, India 14.7%, Kuwait 7.5%, Singapore 7.1%, Japan 4.1% (2008)
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Reserves of foreign exchange and gold | | $5.789 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
$5.278 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
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Debt - external | | $22.83 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
$21.23 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
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Stock of direct foreign investment - at home | | $5.971 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
$5.261 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
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Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad | | $97 million (31 December 2008 est.)
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Exchange rates | | taka (BDT) per US dollar - 68.554 (2008 est.), 69.893 (2007), 69.031 (2006), 64.328 (2005), 59.513 (2004)
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Currency (code) | | taka (BDT)
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Telephones - main lines in use | | 1.39 million (2009)
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Telephones - mobile cellular | | 45.75 million (2009)
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Telephone system | | general assessment: inadequate for a modern country; fixed-line telephone density remains less than 1 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone subscribership has been increasing rapidly and has reached 30 per 100 persons
domestic: modernizing; introducing digital systems; trunk systems include VHF and UHF microwave radio relay links, and some fiber-optic cable in cities
international: country code - 880; landing point for the SEA-ME-WE-4 fiber-optic submarine cable system that provides links to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia; satellite earth stations - 6; international radiotelephone communications and landline service to neighboring countries (2008)
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Internet country code | | .bd
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Internet users | | 556,000 (2008)
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Airports | | 17 (2009)
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Pipelines(km) | | gas 2,597 km (2008)
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Roadways(km) | | total: 239,226 km
paved: 22,726 km
unpaved: 216,500 km (2003)
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Ports and terminals | | Chittagong, Mongla Port
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Military branches | | Bangladesh Defense Force: Bangladesh Army (Sena Bahini), Bangladesh Navy (Noh Bahini, BN), Bangladesh Air Force (Biman Bahini, BAF) (2009)
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Military service age and obligation(years of age) | | 16 years of age for voluntary military service; 17 years of age for officers (both with parental consent); conscription legally possible in emergency, but has never been implemented (2008)
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Manpower available for military service | | males age 16-49: 41,199,340 (2008 est.)
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Manpower fit for military service | | males age 16-49: 24,946,041
females age 16-49: 31,409,069 (2009 est.)
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Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually | | male: 1,538,865
female: 1,666,670 (2009 est.)
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Military expenditures(% of GDP) | | 1.5% of GDP (2006)
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Disputes - international | | discussions with India remain stalled to delimit a small section of river boundary, exchange territory for 51 small Bangladeshi exclaves in India and 111 small Indian exclaves in Bangladesh, allocate divided villages, and stop illegal cross-border trade, migration, violence, and transit of terrorists through the porous border; Bangladesh protests India's fencing and walling off high-traffic sections of the porous boundary; a joint Bangladesh-India boundary commission resurveyed and reconstructed 92 missing pillars in 2007; dispute with India over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation; after 21 years, Bangladesh resumes talks with Burma on delimiting a maritime boundary
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Refugees and internally displaced persons | | refugees (country of origin): 26,268 (Burma)
IDPs: 65,000 (land conflicts, religious persecution) (2007)
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Electricity - production(kWh) | | 22.99 billion kWh (2007 est.)
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Electricity - production by source(%) | | fossil fuel: 93.7%
hydro: 6.3%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (2001)
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Electricity - consumption(kWh) | | 21.38 billion kWh (2007 est.)
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Electricity - exports(kWh) | | 0 kWh (2008 est.)
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Electricity - imports(kWh) | | 0 kWh (2008 est.)
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Oil - production(bbl/day) | | 6,426 bbl/day (2008 est.)
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Oil - consumption(bbl/day) | | 95,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)
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Oil - exports(bbl/day) | | 2,612 bbl/day (2007 est.)
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Oil - imports(bbl/day) | | 87,660 bbl/day (2007 est.)
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Oil - proved reserves(bbl) | | 28 million bbl (1 January 2009 est.)
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Natural gas - production(cu m) | | 17.9 billion cu m (2008 est.)
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Natural gas - consumption(cu m) | | 17.9 billion cu m (2008 est.)
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Natural gas - exports(cu m) | | 0 cu m (2008)
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Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m) | | 141.6 billion cu m (1 January 2009 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%) | | less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS | | 12,000 (2007 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - deaths | | fewer than 500 (2007 est.)
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Major infectious diseases | | degree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in some locations
water contact disease: leptospirosis
animal contact disease: rabies
note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)
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Literacy(%) | | definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 47.9%
male: 54%
female: 41.4% (2001 Census)
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School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)(years) | | total: 8 years
male: 8 years
female: 8 years (2004)
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Education expenditures(% of GDP) | | 2.7% of GDP (2005)
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