Bangladesh faces many challenges that weaken its infrastructure and economic development including a poor technical base, inadequate research and trained workforce, brain drain, lack of infrastructure, very poor project planning, low per capita income, weak governance, inefficient banking and weak capital markets. Additionally, most of the population lives in poverty, literacy and civic sense are low, income is unequally distributed, physical and financial resources are inadequate, the service sector contribution is low, the trade deficit is large and agricultural and industrial growth is imbalanced. Addressing these longstanding weaknesses through improved governance, education, infrastructure development, healthcare and balanced economic policies will be crucial for Bangladesh to strengthen its development prospects.

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Strength:
1. Availability of resources:
Bangladesh is a country of a thousand rivers, large and small, and most of its territory is
regularly flooded during the monsoon season. This fact makes it extremely difficult and
expensive to build modern transportation and communication networks. The river boats
and ferries traditionally used for transportation are cheap, but slow and inefficient. The
situation is further complicated by the fact that the Bangladeshi government has sharply
limited resources not only for building new infrastructure but also for maintaining the
existing one. From the colonial era Bangladesh inherited underdeveloped and unevenly
distributed infrastructure and transportation networks. Poor and inefficient infrastructure
undermined the economic development in the country, and only recently has the
government been able to address the problem systematically and channel investments
towards expanding its highways, railroads, seaports, and airports. More recently, with
international assistance the government has also started to modernize its
telecommunications infrastructure and introduce the Internet.
2. Abundance of manpower:
Supply of unskilled manpower is unlimited. One need not to worry for manpower
resource optimization as one has to strive for in the projects in the industrialized country.
It is very easy to hire and fire the temporary staff, a situation that is common in projects.
Opportunity:
1. Growing economy, scope for fresh and new projects, need for infrastructural
facilities:
Bangladesh economy remained strong and resilient despite external and internal
challenges. Bangladesh is among the top 12 developing countries with a population of
over 20 million, who achieved 6 plus percent growth in 2016. By any standards,
Bangladesh economy has done well. Bangladesh needs to focus on a growth agenda.
2. Urge for development:
3. Adaptability of manpower vis-à-vis technologies:
The workers readily work on overtime, if necessary. Family requirements do not get
preference to the demands at work. Officers work on overtime without any overtime
salaries making the project working more flexible.
In addition to the above receptiveness to banning, cultural heritage and hospitality are
also positive factors which contribute to the successful project implementation.
Weakness:
1. Poor& very inadequate technical bases:

2. 2
The causes of rural poverty are complex and multidimensional. They involve, among
other things, culture, climate, gender, markets, and public policy. Likewise, the rural poor
are quite diverse both in the problems they face and the possible solutions to these
problems. This pamphlet examines how rural poverty develops, what accounts for its
persistence, and what specific measures can be taken to eliminate or reduce it.
2. Inadequacy of research & trained manpower:
3. Serious brain drain:
Brain drain is the migration of skilled human resources for trade, education, etc.1 Trained
health professionals are needed in every part of the world. However, better standards of
living and quality of life, higher salaries, access to advanced technology and more stable
political conditions in the developed countries attract talent from less developed areas.
The majority of migration is from developing to developed countries. This is of growing
concern worldwide because of its impact on the health systems in developing countries.
These countries have invested in the education and training of young health
professionals. This translates into a loss of considerable resources when these people
migrate, with the direct benefit accruing to the recipient states who have not forked out
the cost of educating them. The intellectuals of any country are some of the most
expensive resources because of their training in terms of material cost and time, and most
importantly, because of lost opportunity.
4. Lack & inadequacy of infra-structural facilities:
Infrastructure development is considered as the great global challenge of modern time.
There is a significant and ever-growing demand for adequate infrastructure to address the
most crucial global issues as global warming, climate change, mounting energy demands
for industrialization, food and water shortages, rapid urbanization, economic and social
development.
To meet the global demand for infrastructure development, substantial investment in
infrastructure has become the crying need of the time. The McKinsey Global Institute
(MGI) recently estimated that over the next fifteen years the world needs to spend $57

3. 3
trillion on infrastructure to realize global economic growth ambitions and to meet the
global challenges.
5. Very poor project planning:
Many projects do end successfully, while many others are outright disasters. However,
usually projects end up in the gray area on the project success scale. It’s common to
complete a project but be over your deadline or over your budget, or to have a
dissatisfied client or a miserable team. To keep your projects from ending up in this gray
area (or in the failure range), you must avoid making the single biggest project
management mistake: inadequate project definition and planning.
6. Poor general economic conditions & low per capita income:
Poverty reduction is not just about improving household income, but also about
enhancing human capability. Our optimism in Bangladesh’s future is also based on its
significant gains in human development over the past 15 years. The country is on course
to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for infant and child mortality by
2015 and has already met the MDG of gender parity in primary and secondary schooling.
That said, some of the gains in education and health outcomes have accrued to the better-
off and malnutrition remains surprisingly high compared to other countries. These
inequalities and the frequency of shocks against the backdrop of a large vulnerable
population suggest a significant role for safety nets.
7. Absence of good governance:
Considering Bangladesh’s history of tumultuous politics, the country is gradually
improving in terms of political stability and governance. Unfortunately, development has
not been stable, mainly due to political will and commitment. Democracy and governance
in Bangladesh, still plagued by violence, corruption, outdated laws, abuse of human
rights, absence of rule of law, non-accountability, and heavy politicization of all
government institutions including the judicial system. It is observed that we need strong
political leadership with commitment to fight against deep rooted corruption, non-
accountability, non-transparency and inefficiency is imperative for establishing good
governance and to ensure sustainable development.
Bangladesh is a newly independent country. The time is not sufficient for better
democratic system. Although some progress can be found in past, but the process is very
slow. In the circumstances, the hope of good governance needs struggle of all organs of
the state including political parties, civil society, mass media, NGOs. Awareness among
the citizen is required as they should have strong demand for good governance.
Bangladesh needs development in economy. The democracy should be institutionalized.

4. 4
The government should have fulfilled basic necessities of the people. All these initiatives
will be supported and inspired if the initiative to promote good governance is speed up.
8. Weak & ineffective capital market:
Weak & ineffective capital market: Investor confidence has not fully recovered since the
stock market crash in 1996. This lack of confidence is traceable in large part to weak
governance practices. Lack of market interest has in turn marginalized the role of the
capital market in mobilizing long-term funds for economic development.
9. Inefficient monitoring of banking structure & banking policy:
Inefficient monitoring of banking structure & banking policy: The Economic and Sector
Work of the World Bank Group titled “Strategy for Establishing a Sound and
Competitive Banking Sector” identified three basic problems afflicting the financial
system in Bangladesh. These are :(a) a weak central bank; (b) poor governance; and (c) a
deficient legal framework. Keeping that in mind, the objective of the Central Bank
Strengthening project (CBSP) was to achieve a strong and effective regulatory and
supervisory system for Bangladesh’s banking sector. This would be accomplished by
supporting the overall strengthening of Bangladesh Bank (BB) to enable it to play its due
role as the country’s monetary authority and bank regulator and supervisor Default
culture. Absence of business ethics.
10. Default culture:
Business culture is an accretion of layers, just like the crust of the earth. While the
surface often represents the current moment in history, dig a little and you are likely to
find something less sophisticated, empowering, and inclusive. A “default” business
culture — meaning what we revert to given no other input or direction — lies below the
felt aspirations of many firms to create more open workplaces. This default culture is a
set of practices and assumptions based on the negative side of old-style formal
hierarchy.
11. Low savings-GDP ratio:
In a growing economy like, Bangladesh, a host of such channels may operate leading to a
virtuous cycle of savings, investment and growth. Firstly, savings may affect growth
positively in Bangladesh as the country’s economy operates below the technological
frontier with growth resulting from innovations that would allow the domestic sectors to
catch up with the frontier technology. Secondly, lagged savings is significantly associated
with productivity growth for countries like, Bangladesh operating entirely through the
total factor productivity (TFP) growth rather than capital accumulation. Thirdly, savings
is significantly associated with higher levels of FDI inflows and equipment imports and
the effect that these have on growth is significantly larger for the poor countries than the

5. 5
rich ones (Philippe et al 2006). In view of the critical importance of these two
macroeconomic aggregates, it is important
to have reliable and timely estimates of savings and investment of an economy. These
aggregates assume a greater significance in Bangladesh in view of the economy’s urgent
need to move to a higher growth path and the national target of reaching a GDP growth
rate of 8 percent in FY 2015 as stipulated in the Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-2015) from
an average of around 6.5 percent at present. Such acceleration in growth performance
presupposes robust savings and investment rates. The macroeconomic framework
underlying the Sixth Plan anticipates that the country’s gross domestic investment will
increase to 32.5 percent of GDP in FY 2015 from 24.4 percent in FY 2010 while the
national
Savings rate will rise from 30.0 percent to 32.1 percent of GDP over the same period (PC
2011) Being the country’s national statistical organization with the mandate to compute
national accounts and other statistics, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) provides the
Estimates of savings and investment of Bangladesh on a yearly basis. It needs to be
mentioned here that the statistical system of Bangladesh, especially relating to the country’s
national accounts, has undergone significant improvements since Independence through
various efforts to reduce the complexities created by the lack of data and the unorganized
nature of the economy. Despite these improvements, it is widely alleged that approximations
are particularly marked especially in the estimation of the country’s savings and investment
which remains a major cause of concern for the policy makers and the researchers alike. It
needs also to be emphasized that both savings and investment in Bangladesh, in the
Context of the country’s open economy, are significantly influenced by external factors. The
household sector, the private sector, and the public sector are the major drivers of savings in
the economy. Similarly, the private sector, the household sector, and the public sector are the
major drivers of investment activities probably following the same order in terms of their
importance. Given the complexities and intricacies involved in each of these sectors, the
estimation issues are complex and involve a wide range of structural changes affecting the
savings and investment behaviors of the respective agents. The objective of the present paper
is somewhat limited. It intends to clarify the conceptual
Issues surrounding the estimation of savings and investment in the Bangladesh economy and
explain why there exist perceptible differences between the estimates of savings and investment
given the relevant theory and the adopted practice. The study also draws some implications of
the divergences and provides recommendations for improving the situation.
12. Majority of the population lives below poverty level:
Bangladesh is one of the world's most densely populated countries with 150 million
people, 13% of whom live below the national poverty line of US$2 per day. But
Bangladesh's extreme poverty rate dropped to 12.9 percent in 2016, mentioned by
the World Bank.

6. 6
13. Low literacy rate & lack of civic sense, patriotism, and sense of belongingness:
Literacy has often been defined as those aged 15 and older who can read and write.
According to Wikipedia (2011), the overall literacy rate for Bangladesh is 56.5%. This is
a significant rise from 29.2% in 1981 (Bangladesh Literacy Rate, 2011). A 2008 UNICEF
estimate of gender disparity indicates that the literacy rate for men is 62% and 51% for
women (Wikipedia, 2011). The Bangladesh Government and various NGOs have
invested significantly in education and literacy. According to a UNESCO report in 2000,
there were more than 450 NGOs working in the field of literacy. These NGOs
represented nearly 163,000 ongoing literacy centers (UNESCO Institute for Statistics,
2002)
THIS is apropos of Sarfaraz Samad’s letter ‘Lack of civic sense’ (March 29). I also
believe that civic sense or the lack of it is a topic that has been widely discussed and
argued in our society. Somehow, most of the people do not care much for civic sense.
The writer has highlighted issues as regards spit marks, urine, vulgar graffiti, random
garbage and overflowing sewers at every nook and cranny of his city, but these are
common problems of our cities, towns and even small villages. So, in my opinion, well-
wishers of our society should join hands with each other to address these issues, and now
is the appropriate time for national reunion in this regard.
Bangladesh Patriotism Society is not about any ‘Political Party’ & not even ‘Business’. It’s
all about our duty to our ‘Motherland’ which has been achieved by a long journey from 1952
to 1971…We Salute & Respect all the Freedom Fighters(directly & indirectly involved) &
also those People & Countries who helped us to get our ‘Own Language, Flag, Constitution
& last but not the least A Land in the world called ‘Bangladesh’ So, now it’s our turn to do
something good, better, best & helpful for our ‘Bangladesh & Bangladeshi’ from our own
position (Self to OR Combined) with the Value & Respect of 1971.
We trust, only Patriotism can build our ‘Golden Bangladesh’!!! So, Show your Patriotism.
14. Unhealthy distribution of income and concentration of most of the wealth of the
country in the hand of several thousand:
Rising economic inequality through the distribution of income, consumption, wealth or
assets is a major challenge. There is considerable concern in Bangladesh about the
growing income inequality. Available household level information suggests that the
distribution of income is much more unequal than the distribution of consumption.
15. Inadequacy of physical resources:
Bangladesh has already scaled up its conservation programs with her scarce domestic
resources for the protection of depleted natural resources in the face of increased disasters

7. 7
and adverse impacts of climate change.
But the country also requires massive global support to face these additional stresses on
its national budget.
The country needs at least US $7 billion for implementing all its climate change, natural
resource management and environment programs already taken. But so far less than US
$1 billion could be managed. The rest should come from development partners and
international community.
16. Wrong conception about religion & weak socio-cultural institution, of which family
is the weakest:
Religion has been a part of humanity since the first astronomers peered into the sky and
created elaborate stories to define the movements of our universe. It made its way into
our minds as we fearfully created devils and demons to explain the danger lurking in the
darkness of night. It has both enchanted and burdened us as we attempt to define our
world with the information available to us as we work our way through history.
Sometime wrong concept of religion may be affect the project.
Social institutions are usually conceived of as the basic focuses of social organization,
common to all societies and dealing with some of the basic universal problems of ordered
social life. Three basic aspects of institutions are emphasized. First, the patterns of
behavior which are regulated by institutions (“institutionalized") deal with some
perennial, basic problems of any society. Second, institutions involve the regulation of
behavior of individuals in society according to some definite, continuous, and organized
patterns. Finally, these patterns involve a definite normative ordering and regulation; that
is, regulation is upheld by norms and by sanctions which are legitimized by these norms.
If it act as weak then it will affect the project.
17. Very low contribution of service sector:
Last year (2015) contribution of Service Sector to Bangladesh GDP was 56.35%. Not
only in 2015, it is a steadily growing sector of Bangladesh economy since the
independence of the country. Contribution of industry to the GDP is rising too, but in a
sloth and ups and down manner. While contribution of Service sector raised without any
major downturn.
18. Very wide trade gap that is unfavorable balance of trade & balance of payment
position (Export earning is about 40% import bills):
Like many poorer countries, Bangladesh has encouraged its growing cadre of workers in
the Middle East and elsewhere overseas to remit earnings back to the country. As a result
of these private transfers, the country has been able to offset its trade deficit to some
degree. Since the end of the 1990s, the level of worker remittances has increased at an
average rate of 12.6%. As of November 2004, such remittances totaled $3 billion a year.
19. Ineffective balance of growth of agricultural & industries:

8. 8
The economy of Bangladesh has experienced significant shifts in trade, fiscal, industrial,
agricultural and financial policies over last two decades. Bangladesh is significantly
dependent on external resources and at the behest of the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund, Bangladesh adopted a set of structural adjustment policies
that impacted on all sectors of the economy and every aspect of the short- and medium-
term economic management. The key sectors embodying the pace of reforms are
agriculture industry, external trade, finance and banking and foreign exchange.
20. Initial industry base was planned on basis of different geographical dispersion and
market:
A possible reason for this omission is that the existing literature defines an investment as
local if the investor is located geographically close to the firm’s headquarters. According
to this definition, all firms are local to some investors, and there is no cross-sectional
variation in the degree of “localness” among firms. A novel measure that allows us to
characterize firms, rather than investments, as local. By distinguishing between truly
local firms and firms that are geographically dispersed, we are able to shed light on the
asset pricing implications of the local bias.
21. Inadequacy of basic, heavy and mother industries:
Industrial sector which exports all or nearly all of its production. Basic industries, as a
result of their foreign exchange earnings, create new incomes and additional spending
power in their country's economy.
Heavy industry is industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large
and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment,
large machine tools, and huge buildings); or complex of numerous processes. Because of
those factors, heavy industry involves higher capital intensity than light industry does,
and it is also often more heavily cyclical in investment and employment.
The aggregate of manufacturing or technically productive enterprises in a particular field,
often named after its principal product: the mother industry; the steel industry.
22. Lack of interdepartmental, inter-ministerial coordination & ineffective sectoral
adjustment in Bangladesh:
The demands of participation in various international regimes make policy coordination
across government a key factor determining effective governance at the national level.
Governance mechanisms (i.e., standards, rules, and policies and processes and
procedures) apply to government functions both on a standalone basis and in the
context of coordination among various public bodies.
23. Lack of motivation in implementation of projects with serious snags:
A project has to be researched and planned in advance for defining its scope, objectives,
budget and other important elements that are vital for a project, before the project
implementation actually starts. In the due course of its implementation, a set of problems

9. 9
may crop up from time to time which have to be addressed quickly and effectively.
Failure to do so may result in the project getting negatively affected and which may
eventually result in project failure.
In the planning and research phase of the project, possible risks have to be analyzed and
their solutions worked out in the advance. So that if these types problems do arise, they
can be solved quickly and the project cruises smoothly.
Apart from these, many other unexpected problems may arise which were not researched
and thought of earlier during the planning phase. These problems have to be identified
and documented and skilled team members should be delegated to find solutions for
them. The project should be broken into smaller modules so that when such type of
problems do occur in a module, they can be tracked and controlled independently and
effectively without passing their negativity to other modules.
24. Political unrest impedes projects implementation & absence of network analysis or
project scheduling is hardly pursued:
The importance of horizontal coordinating governance arrangements in the
internationalized policy domains that occur more frequently in the present globalizing era
justifies building further on middle-level theories that draw on the policy
community/policy network concepts. This reconceptualization, however, requires an
explicit integration of policy paradigms and political ideas into policy community theory
and careful attention to the differential impact of varying governance patterns in
internationalized policy domains. This article pursues these objectives beginning with a
review of existing literature on policy communities and policy networks. Next, drawing
on recent research on policy paradigms and political ideas, it suggests how policy
community concepts might be adapted for the study of policy change. Four types of
internationalized policy environments are then identified and their implications for policy
communities and policy networks are assessed. The article concludes by introducing the
concept of policy community mediators and discussing how they might shape the
relationships among multiple policy communities.
25. Impacts of open market economy & formation of regional economic blocs:
Intra-South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) trade appears to be
very small compared to other existing regional blocks. This might be because of normal
outcome or because of unexplored trade opportunity. If the latter is the case, then
increased trade within this region might be welfare improving. This study attempts to
make a formal analysis of these issues, and estimates a gravity model of international
trade to examine whether intra-SAARC is lower or higher than what is predicted by an
economic model. This gives an idea about the structure of comparative advantage in the
SAARC countries that helps to explain why intra-SAARC trade is low and how trade
among them can be increased. It also helps us to understand the possibility of trade
creation and trade diversion effect resulting from South Asian Preferential Trading
Arrangements among SAARC countries. Whereas the gravity model has been extensively
used to measure bilateral trade among countries, they have, to the best of my knowledge,
never been used to measure intra-SAARC trade. Our gravity model results suggest that
SAARC member countries are yet to achieve trade-creating benefits. Appropriate policies
need to be formulated for more regional integration. Liberalization of trade in SAARC

10. 10
countries offers significant gains for all the economies in the region. Efforts should be
made to liberalize border trade and strengthen bilateral trade relations through the
removal of tariff and nontariff barriers in the general framework of South Asian
Preferential Trading Arrangements.
26. High degree of propensity to incur unproductive expenses out of project funds both
in public and private sectors:
The performance of the public enterprise sector in Bangladesh is poor. The inefficiency
of public enterprises places a fiscal burden, diverts limited resources from growth-
enhancing public spending to unproductive subsidies, and affects the country's industrial
competitiveness. This paper identifies the prospects, problems, and pitfalls of
privatization program and policies in Bangladesh. Firstly, the stylized facts about public
enterprises are provided and the basic issues in privatization policy as it relates to
Bangladesh are discussed. Secondly, the preconditions for efficiency gains arising from
privatization are evaluated. Thirdly, the role of public enterprises in the labor market in
Bangladesh is examined. Finally, the political and the economic factors that can offset the
potential efficiency gains from privatization in Bangladesh are critically analyzed.
27. Trading mentality of entrepreneurs, lack of business farsightedness resulting into
interest towards painstaking industrial projects:
The paper aims to analyze the critical factors of women entrepreneurship development in
rural Bangladesh. The analysis is based on recent theoretical ideas that have been
supported by empirical research findings. The paper depicts an analytical framework
based on institutional theory, which focuses on three kinds of factors: regulative,
normative, and cognitive. Regulative factors refer to different rules and regulations of the
Government that facilitate women entrepreneurship development in rural Bangladesh.
Normative and cognitive factors include norms, rules, regulation, and values of society.
Based on the analysis of these factors, the paper provides many significant policy
implications on how to improve women entrepreneurship development in rural
Bangladesh.
28. High degree of irresponsibility, callousness & indifference on the part of project
managers of public sector projects:
The role of property development in city revitalization is considered. Case study material
is used to analyze the changing organizational nature of property development, especially
the interrelationships between property developers and the traditional purveyors of urban
policy: Local authorities. It is shown how the property industry is dependent on the
development of organizational capacities with public authorities in a manner not
anticipated by the rhetoric of central government, a rhetoric which has pushed the
property-led approach as an alternative to development by, and through, the public sector.
In contrast to this view, illustrative material is presented which indicates how property-
led development is highly dependent on the public sector. Also illustrated is how the
process of property-led regeneration has the capacity to undermine a range of local,
community, interests in areas affected by redevelopment schemes, a situation which has
been exacerbated by the prioritization of the shorter-term development goals of the
property industry.

11. 11
Threat:
1. Lack & inadequacy of infra-structural facilities:
Infrastructure development is considered as the great global challenge of modern
time. There is a significant and ever-growing demand for adequate infrastructure to
address the most crucial global issues as global warming, climate change, mounting
energy demands for industrialization, food and water shortages, rapid urbanization,
economic and social development.
To meet the global demand for infrastructure development, substantial investment in
infrastructure has become the crying need of the time. The McKinsey Global Institute
(MGI) recently estimated that over the next fifteen years the world needs to spend
$57 trillion on infrastructure to realize global economic growth ambitions and to meet
the global challenges.
2. Corruption:
According to all major ranking institutions, Bangladesh routinely finds itself among the
most corrupt countries in the world. Corruption is pervasive at all levels of society and
companies have reported being subjected to costly and unnecessary license and permit
requirements. Reasons often include low salaries and weak institutional
capacities. The Code of Criminal Procedure, the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Penal
Code and the Money Laundering Prevention Act criminalist
attempted corruption, extortion, active and passive bribery, bribery of foreign public
officials, money laundering and using public resources or confidential state information
for private gain. Nevertheless, anti-corruption legislation is inadequately enforced.
Facilitation payments and gifts are illegal, but common in practice.
3. Data bank lacking & highly inaccurate:
4. Along with most of what we think of as facts in development, are actually estimates.
We have actual numbers on maternal mortality for just 16% of all births, and on
malaria for about 15% of all deaths. For six countries in Africa, there is basically no
information at all.
5. In the absence of robust official systems for registering births and deaths, collecting
health or demographic data, or the many other things that are known by governments
about people in richer countries, the household survey is the foundation on which
most development data is built. Numbers from the surveys are used to estimate almost
all the things we think we know – from maternal mortality to school attendance to
income levels. Household surveys are run by governments or by external agencies
such as the World Bank, USAid or Unicef.
6. Death of experienced & hardworking and honest entrepreneurs:
7. A disagreement between the four [cofounders] turned into a nasty power struggle that
put me and Alex [Cavoulacos], my current Muse cofounder, at the receiving end of

12. 12
screaming threats, and I woke up one morning to find my website access, as well as
that of Alex and our entire team, shut off. I felt completely humiliated, like I had
failed them and myself. I also ended up losing the entire life savings I’d put in the
company–about $20,000. We could have sued, or we could have started over. We
chose the latter.”
8. “Every single person other than two of my former partners left PYP Media in July
2011 to start The Muse, and in our first month, we had more people visit the site than
in the history of PYP. We build a much stronger product, raced ahead with a clear
sense of purpose and were accepted into Y Combinator several months later. We’ve
raised well over $2 million in venture and angel funding to date and reached over 15
million people. In many ways, that first failure was the best thing that ever happened
to me.”
9. Size of market & buying capacities:
10. Every business has a limited buying capacity. Understanding your customers' buying
capacity helps you make the most of your marketing capacity. Unfortunately, a recent
report released by NetProspex reveals that few small businesses gather the
information needed to estimate the buying capacity of their customers.
11. Uncongenial legal framework:
Uncongenial legal framework: Bangladesh unfortunately doesn’t have an effective and
strong judiciary and the enforceability of contracts is a problem. Also due to lack of
accountability and prevalence of corruption people do not have that much confidence in
and or willingness to abide by rules. The efficiency of the legislative environment is
further decreased due to the weak quality monitoring and policing by the regulatory
authorities as a result of inadequate infrastructure facilities.
12. Unfriendly administrative machinery:
Unfriendly administrative machinery: Bangladesh unfortunately doesn’t have an effective
and strong judiciary and the enforceability of contracts is a problem. Also due to lack of
accountability and prevalence of corruption people do not have that much confidence in
and or willingness to abide by rules. The efficiency of the legislative environment is
further decreased due to the weak quality monitoring and policing by the regulatory
authorities as a result of inadequate infrastructure facilities.

13. 13
13. Irrational fiscal policy:
Bangladesh basically comprises activities, which the country carries out to obtain and use
resources to provide services while ensuring optimum efficiency of the economic units.
The policy influences the behavior of economic forces through public financing. Major
objectives of the fiscal policy of Bangladesh are to ensure macroeconomic stability of the
country, promote economic growth, and develop a mechanism for equitable distribution
of income. The main tools to achieve these objectives are variation in public revenue,
variation in public expenditure, and management of public debt. These are reflected in
the budgetary operations of the government, prepared and implemented on year-on-year
basis.
The current Bangladesh Economic Update reveals that fall in growth in collection of
revenue, rising per capita debt burden and shrinking public sector investment may
contract expansion of gross domestic product (GDP). the Update probes into the matter of
increased deficit in the budget of the government leading to slimming down of private
investment on the one hand and retrenchment of development expenditure on the other
hand, since the government borrows from abroad to finance deficit and has to repay the
loan with large amount of interest payment that increases non-development expenditure
and causes government to reduce its development expenditure. Cumbersome Legal
Procedures Centralized Taxation System:
 Resource Constraints (Human and Logistics)
 Limited Administrative Capacity
 High Degree of Tax Evasion
 Low Tax Base
 High Tax Incidence
 Regressive Nature of Taxation
 Low Level of Revenue Mobilization
Salient Features of Bangladesh’s Current Salient Features of Bangladesh’s Current Fiscal
Scenario Fiscal Scenario Salient Features of Tax System Notwithstanding the various
fiscal reforms of the recent past, Bangladesh fiscal system continues to suffer from a
number of major weaknesses.
14. Absence of business ethics:
As Bangladesh is an economy in transition, the evolutionary process of transforming
its business ethical values, norms and moralities has greatly hampered its
organizational culture (Hoque, Khan &Mowla, 2013) and development. Business
organizations are not yet fully implementing international standards or codes of
ethics, though, Islamic motivation significantly can contributes to the organizational
ethics in Bangladesh (Ather, Khan & Hoque, 2011). In current days, business ethics is
a burning issue. A low level of ethics in the business sector is a part of wider socio-

14. 14
economic and political problems faced by many countries: often loopholes in legal
and business regulation contribute to the corruptions that can disarray business
operations. As the globalization process is in progression, the world begins to
resemble a global village, so business ethics has become an international issue.
The practice of business ethics in our country is still not ubiquitous, we are not
getting the proper environment for the business, and thus often we are facing some
crisis situation and it is hampering our total economic development. Our policy
makers and the top executives of the organizations should give more concern in
making ethical policies and take proper steps to encourage business executives and
service holders to follow them.
15. Lack of political will:
16. High political risk including instability:
High political risk including instability: Bangladesh was classified previously as
“high risk” country. We see growing risks from the increasingly confrontational
tendencies in Bangladeshi politics, which could see a return to the political turmoil
that preceded the declaration of emergency in January 2007. Were the government of
Sheikh Hasina to fail to avoid further confrontation with the opposition, this would
inevitably have repercussions on foreign direct investment and economic growth.
Majority of the population lives below poverty label. Cumbersome custom
formalities. Very loose border and smuggling. Very wide trade gap that is
unfavorable balance of payment position: Unequal flow of money under an
unfavorable balance of payments in Bangladesh reduce the country's money supply
and increase the exchange rate to currencies in other countries, causing issues with
inflation, unemployment and production. Too narrow risk taking mentality: In
Bangladesh, risks and uncertainty discourage potential entrepreneurs from
undertaking highly profitable and socially desirable new ventures.
17. Precarious law & order situation:
In the modern world state is an indispensable institution for ordered society and the
necessity of the government cannot be gainsaid. At the beginning of the last century,
people felt the presence of government only in post office and police. But with the
passage of time, tremendous advancement of technology and the emerging concept
of welfare State, there has been vast expansion of the role of the government. Today
the functions of the government are, to say the least, all pervasive. From cradle to
grave a man comes face to face with one or more statutes covering every aspect of
life and all these statutes confer enormous discretionary power on the public
functionaries. Every power and every discretion granted in favor of the governmental
authorities makes a corresponding incursion on the freedom of individuals. Existence
of unfettered and uncontrolled power of the government must have disastrous effect
on the rights and liberty of the people. So the concept of constitutionalism has been
developed. A State may have constitution, but not constitutionalism. The Nazi

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regime in Germany provides the most obvious example. Constitutionalism recognizes
the need for limited government with checks and balances on the exercise of power
by the governmental authorities. And at the heart of constitutionalism is the concept
of rule of law.
Today we see extreme abuse of power by the law enforcing agencies.
Maintaining law and order in one of the fundamental duties and responsibilities of the
law enforcing agencies. But for the ruling parties are using this power with their own
shake. They use this to power to varnish opposition parties to hold power for next
time or may be fore ever.
18. Bangladesh is classified as ‘‘high risk’’ country:
Bangladesh was classified previously as “high risk” country. We see growing risks
from the increasingly confrontational tendencies in Bangladeshi politics, which could
see a return to the political turmoil that preceded the declaration of emergency in
January 2007. Were the government of Sheikh Hasina to fail to avoid further
confrontation with the opposition, this would inevitably have repercussions on
foreign direct investment and economic growth. Majority of the population lives
below poverty label. Cumbersome custom formalities. Very loose border and
smuggling. Very wide trade gap that is unfavorable balance of payment position:
Unequal flow of money under an unfavorable balance of payments in Bangladesh
reduce the country's money supply and increase the exchange rate to currencies in
other countries, causing issues with inflation, unemployment and production. Too
narrow risk taking mentality: In Bangladesh, risks and uncertainty discourage
potential entrepreneurs from undertaking highly profitable and socially desirable new
ventures.
19. Absence of social values and social justice with its serious erosion:
The poor are not unable to hold on to social values. The fact is that their social
imagination pushes them further down the social ladder. Thus, their alleged
"immorality" is not only presupposed but also encouraged by society in order to
justify their imagination though to a lesser degree. A contradiction may here be
noticed. Generally speaking everybody agrees that truth, right and goodness should
be upheld, but in practice things leave a lot to be desired.
20. Serious exploitation of society and country by educated people:
To exploit someone is to take unfair advantage of them. It is to use another person’s
vulnerability for one’s own benefit. Of course, benefitting from another’s
vulnerability is not always morally wrong—we do not condemn a chess player for
exploiting a weakness in his opponent’s defense, for instance. But some forms of

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advantage-taking do seem to be clearly wrong, and it is this normative sense of
exploitation that is of primary interest to moral and political philosophers.
21. Growth of population:
An increase in the number of people that reside in a country, state, county, or city. To
determine whether there has been population growth, the following formula is used:
(birth rate + immigration) - (death rate + emigration).
22. Cumbersome custom formalities:
What’s more, the rules, regulations, and laws are a bit different from country to
country, sometimes from port to port within a country, making someone who
specializes in customs clearance very important to a shipper exporting and importing
goods.
These specialists are called customs brokers and the work they do is called customs
brokerage or sometimes customs broking.
Having the wrong person handle your customs brokerage can be very problematic.
Shipping containers are warehoused as they go through customs clearance.
Warehousing and storage fees can add up quickly. If there is a problem with your
customs brokerage and your customs clearance does not happen smoothly, your
shipping costs could go up by hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Delay in custom clearance of the equipment and materials for the implementation of
the project sometimes a major problem of the default project.
23. . Imbalance between direct and indirect tax structure:
Tax, is the payment we make to the Government, for a good/service. It is this money
that Govt. uses for all the functions it is expected to do. Military, Infrastructure -
Economic and social, basic amenities, Welfare etc.
In Bangladesh, we have Direct (Personal income tax, Wealth tax, Capital tax)
and Indirect taxation (custom duties, Excise duties of the states and the center,
Service tax, VAT) currently in use. Sometimes imbalance of direct and indirect tax
can be affected the project.
24. Very loose boarder and smuggling:

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Weak border monitoring by guards working for customs and other related agencies
facilitates the smuggling of products into the country. Every day, 300 to 400 people
commute by boat between Teknaf (Bangladesh) and Maungdaw (a port in Myanmar)
across the Teknaf River, some of whom smuggle products. The smugglers dodge the
border guards or establish illegal bribe-based relationships with them. It may affect
the project.
25. Irregular flow of foreign funds:
Foreign fund flow and development effectiveness is an important issue because each
year donors transfer lot of money as foreign aid to developing countries. Moreover,
based on new pledges and greater commitments to development assistance from
donor nations, there is a possibility of scaling up of foreign development assistance
far beyond the current levels. From the donors’ perspective, the commitment is
increase aid flows to developing countries, only the starting point. This in turn to
raises issues regarding the role of the donors’ aid allocation policies in ensuring aid
effectiveness. Some important propositions that are relate governance to foreign aid
allocation and effectiveness. The aid to the production sector can be effective in
promoting growth in countries with a low quality of governance. However, aid
allocated to economic infrastructure is efficient in countries with medium and high
quality of governance.
26. High frequency of natural calamities and disaster Natural calamities in
Bangladesh or, natural disasters in Bangladesh:
Bangladesh is one of developing countries of south-east Asia. It is visited by different
natural calamities almost every year. Our fate is that we have to survive by fighting
against reoccurring natural calamities. Ours is a life of great challenge indeed.
27. Serious problem of ozone unbalancing, warming up of atmosphere, increase of
sea level, probable flood and erosion of landscape:
Climate change is an important issue nowadays. Various human activities are making
the world hot to hotter. The ultimate result is global warming, i.e. climate change.
Rising temperature in the atmosphere causes sea level rise and affects low lying
coastal areas and deltas of the world. In 1990, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change estimates that with a business-as-usual scenario of greenhouse gas emission,
the world would be 3.30C warmer by the end of the next century, with a range of
uncertainty of 2.2 to 4.90C (Warrick et al., 1993). With rise in temperature, sea level
will rise because of thermal expansion and ice melt. Sea level rise has various
impacts on Bangladesh, a coastal country facing 710 km long coast to the Bay of
Bengal.It already has affected Bangladesh by land erosion, salinity intrusion and loss
in biodiversity. Its potential threats are coming even strongly in the future. Sea level
rise will cause river bank erosion, salinity intrusion, flood, damage to infrastructures,
crop failure, fisheries destruction, loss of biodiversity, etc. along this coast. A one-
meter sea level rise (SLR) will affect the country’s vast coastal area and flood plain

18. 18
zone. It will affect Millennium Development goals, causing environmental refugees.
Most vulnerable sectors to one meter sea level rise are coastal resources, water
resources, agriculture and the ecosystem of Bangladesh.
28. Serious problem of time and cost overruns of project implementation:
The case of delays and cost overruns in public sector projects is a global
phenomenon. Although time and cost performance is considered as the fundamental
criterion for success of any project, it rarely happens that projects get delivered on
time and within the estimated cost. Azhar (2008), for example, reports that the trend
of cost overruns is common worldwide and is worsening in developing countries.
Singh (2010) also documents that infrastructure projects in a developing country like
India are infamous for delays and cost overruns.
29. Ineffective & corrupted banking structure:
The present state of governance in Bangladesh is evaluated here using the concept of
governance, particularly good governance. Bangladesh shows all the symptoms of an
underdeveloped polity. Democracy has not been institutionalized. Politics continues
to be dominated by big money, goons and people with little background and training
in formal politics. Elections have become such an expensive affair that ordinary
citizens act only as passive voters. Power and authority are concentrated at the top
echelons of government. Corruption has become so endemic that it has engulfed the
entire society. Both the supreme leaders of two major political parties, ie the Awami
League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were handed top leadership positions
for reasons of heredity and kinship. This permanent nature of supreme leadership has
thwarted internal democracy in political parties' function and management. The
dominant position of the executive is widely known. The parliamentary system that is
in existence can best be termed a prime ministerial system. The parliament is content
to play second fiddle to the executive. Lack of independence of the judiciary has
resulted in its heavy dependence on the executive. Lack of accountability and
transparency in the affairs of the state is a major impediment to effective governance.
The human rights situation remains unsatisfactory. One of the pressing problems of
governance is the politicization of the public bureaucracy, with adverse effects on
performance. Expenditure on the military continues to rise without any apparent
justification.