Bangladesh has capacity to be upper-middle-income country by 2031: ICCB

Business Report :
With targeted actions and appropriate policy followed by timely implementation to overcome the key challenges, Bangladesh has the capacity to become an upper-middle-income country by 2031, said International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB) on Monday.
An editorial of the current News Bulletin (January-March 2024) of ICCB said Bangladesh has achieved today’s position by overcoming many obstacles and setbacks as Bangladesh has demonstrated remarkable development progress in the last five decades.
The country’s journey from one of the poorest countries at independence to a lower-middle-income nation within four decades is a testament to its resilience, policy decisions, and commitment to reducing poverty and fostering shared prosperity said World Bank in its recent publication “World Bank in Bangladesh in 2024.
Macroeconomic stability with low levels of inflation and high levels of GDP growth have been key to Bangladesh’s underlying strengths and major drivers of socio- economic achievements.
Bangladesh reached lower-middle income status in 2015 and is on track to graduate in 2026 as a middle-income country and aspiring to be an upper-middle income country by 2031, the editorial said.
However, Bangladesh after LDC graduation in November 2026, will experience significant preference erosion. Although the EU and UK have offered to extend preferential duty-free market access for an additional three years, the export scenario to other markets will change immediately after graduation.
Bangladesh has a greater opportunity of increasing export to ASEAN, having a population of 661 million with a GDP of $3.08 trillion and trade exceeding $2.7 trillion.
According to 2020 data, Bangladesh imports goods worth nearly US$7.0 billion from ASEAN countries as against its export of only $1.0 billion. So, Bangladesh should give priority to have Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN in order to increase its exports.