One of the most salient characteristics of Bangladeshi politics
has been the drive toward the concentration of power in a single
party headed by a strong executive. This process began in 1975 when
the Awami League, even with a huge mandate from the people, proved
incapable of governing the country, prompting Mujib to form a
monolithic national party, the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami
League (Bangladesh Peasants, Workers, and People's League). After
Zia consolidated his military dictatorship, he formed his own
Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which took control of Parliament and
attracted opportunistic politicians from the opposition to a
strong, centrist platform. Ershad's regime followed Zia's model,
with martial law succeeded by the formation of a centrist party--
the Jatiyo Party--and the orchestration of a civilian government
supporting a strong executive
(see The Zia Regime and Its Aftermath, 1977-82
, ch. 1). Each time a new national party came to
power, it banished the opposition into illegal status or
manipulated the administrative machinery for its own advantage,
driving the opposition into the streets. Parliamentary elections
mirrored this process. The Awami League, which was dominant in the
early 1970s, progressively moved to the periphery of the electoral
process in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, despite
continuing support for its programs from large segments of the
population. The same fate was in store for the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party, which thrived while Zia lived but was reduced to
boycotting the electoral process after 1981. The Jatiyo Party,
created by Ershad and his colleagues, became stronger over time as
it attracted increasing numbers of politicians. This process
continued into the late 1980s because the strong executive, who
controlled the country's administration, media, and security
forces, was able to keep opposition parties off balance with a
"carrot and stick" strategy.
The party in power periodically offered attractive government
posts to opposition leaders in return for political loyalty or
neutrality. During the presidencies of Zia and Ershad, the number
of cabinet positions steadily expanded, as potentially influential
politicians received rewards for cooperating with the party in
power. Before elections, or at about the time of major
parliamentary votes, newspapers have carried stories about entire
labor unions or blocs of opposition workers who joined the
president's party. Reverse currents were observed in the mid-1980s,
as individual leaders fell from favor and lost their cabinet posts
or else left the national party to form their own political
factions, but the overall trend was toward a steady increase in the
membership and influence of the dominant party.
Ershad, following the example of Zia's Self-Sufficient Village
Government Plan, used administrative decentralization to allocate
resources to the grass-roots level, bypassing the local opposition
party apparatus and providing a strong incentive for leaders at the
village level to support his party. This strategy isolated the
opposition parties in urban areas, while the national party
disbursed patronage in rural areas. The local elites were
opportunistic, changing their affiliations in order to obtain the
largest amount of aid for their constituencies. A study of union
council chairmen after the 1984 elections revealed that 38 percent
had changed party affiliations within the previous 10 years; 53
percent supported the Jana Dal, which had been in existence for 12
months, while only 19 percent supported the Awami League and 8
percent backed the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. In the 1985
subdistrict elections, after the Jana Dal had existed for 2 years,
207 of 460 chairmen supported Ershad's party, and the Jana Dal
exercised political control over 44 percent of the nation's
districts. This was notable progress for a party with a program
essentially the same as that of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(the party in total control only five years earlier), which
controlled only 34 (7.4 percent) of the subdistrict chairmanships.
The Awami League, which had dominated the nation 10 years earlier,
controlled only 53 (11.5 percent) of the chairmanships.
Military support has been a crucial component of the success of
the national party. In the 1970s, observers were unwilling to
predict the actions of the military because it was torn by internal
divisions between freedom fighters and returnees from West
Pakistan, political groups of the far left and the right, and
factional infighting among leftist factions. Zia moved to stabilize
the military through a purge of unreliable personnel, more than
1,100 of whom were executed, and through steady progress in
professionalizing the services, incorporating elements from both
freedom fighters and returnees
(see Recruitment
, ch. 5). The strong
trend under Zia and Ershad away from the Awami League and the
Soviet Union decreased communist and Maoist influences, which had
been very strong during the 1970s. By the 1980s, it appeared that
military officers were the most interested in adequate financial
support for the armed forces and limitation of civilian political
turmoil. The slow expansion of the military and the opportunity for
military leaders to gain administrative positions under Ershad
convinced potential military rivals that he represented their
interests. Ershad at first followed up on his promises to include
the military in civil administration through legislative means, but
when he later backed away from the District Council Bill, there
were no major stirrings within the military. A more difficult
challenge was the Siege of Dhaka in late 1987, with massive street
violence, but again the military did not act. Apparently, Ershad
and his Jatiyo Party were able to keep political disorder within
bounds acceptable to the military leadership.
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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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