Topic: Economic relations of Bangladesh with developed and developing countries

Economic relations with different countries can be divided into three categories:

• Exports
• Imports
• Foreign aid/loans

Exports:
Being an exporting developing country, Bangladesh’s earnings from exports are
always less than it spends on imports. That is, Bangladesh is a trade deficit country.
However, due to various measures the government took recently, this deficit is
gradually decreasing. Bangladesh manufactures textile garments, jute and jute
products, frozen food, shrimp, tea, leather, knitwear, other agricultural products
etc. Most of the products exported from Bangladesh are imported to The United
States, United Kingdom, Germany, France etc. Bangladesh also has trade relations
with SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries. Among
them, most of the products are exported to India. Another big export sector of
Bangladesh is skilled/unskilled manpower. Besides Middle Eastern countries,
manpower in Bangladesh is also sent to countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

Imports:
Bangladesh is mainly an agricultural country. Therefore, basic and heavy industries
have not been established in Bangladesh. So, the raw materials for heavy and other
industries have to be imported to Bangladesh from outside. Other imported
products of Bangladesh include food grains, petroleum and petroleum-based
goods, cotton, oil, fertilizers, yam etc. China and India are at the top among the
countries where Bangladesh has been importing goods from. The other countries
that Bangladesh imports from are Singapore, Japan, Hongkong, Taiwan, South
Korea, Malaysia and the USA.

Foreign Loans/Aid:
Bangladesh receives many loans/aids and grants from various international
organizations like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Asian
Development Bank (ADP), European Union (EU), Organizations of the United
Nations, International Development Agency (IDA) and several other countries.
However, the receiving of aid/loans is gradually decreasing.

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