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Bangladesh: A traumatic byproduct of partition

December 16 is a significant day in the history of two nations — Pakistan and Bangladesh. It was on this date, 42 years ago, that the eastern province of Pakistan broke away to form an independent country called Bangladesh. Bangladesh, which held almost a quarter of the land of which Pakistan was made of, was also home to the majority of the population, as an estimated 53 per cent of the total populace resided within its borders. FlagFollowing the split, which saw the people in the eastern province achie...

Bangladesh’s tenuous links with democracy

Despite economic progress and considerable success in the improvement of a range of social indicators, consolidation of democracy in Bangladesh has remained quite elusive.

This week, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) announced that it would not participate in the forthcoming national elections, thereby creating a potential political deadlock. This decision to boycott the polls has come in the wake of a series of violent clashes between the BNP and the Awami League (AL) supporters, strikes and violent demonstrations. Against this backdrop, it is difficult, at this stage, to tell if this announcement was mere political grandstanding or not. Unfortunately, regardless of whether or no...

DC-10 makes last passenger flight with Biman

Biman Bangladesh Airlines will operate final DC-10 passenger service tomorrow. DC-10 has had checkered past, including high-profile accidents. The plane debuted in 1971 on a flight between Los Angeles and Chicago. A special “last chance” flight for enthusiasts is planned for February Some commercial jets receive soaring fanfare when they hang up their wings. But what sort of retirement party awaits the airline industry’s final scheduled DC-10 passenger flight? The final-flight honor goes to Bangladesh Biman Airlines, operator of the world’s last passenger DC-10 -- which the airline says will be making its final scheduled flight on December 7, on an otherwise routine flight. (The airline hasn’t said which route the plane will fly.)

Ticfa, US bilateralism and Bangladesh

AFTER a decade of negotiation between the US and Bangladesh, TIFA has recently received a new name — Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (Ticfa). Only in four cases the name TIFA varied and became Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum (TICF), Trade and Investment Development Cooperation Agreement (TIDCA), Framework Agreement for Trade, Economic, Investment, Technical Cooperation (FATEITC). Whatever the term is, these are the precursors for the US to have complete bilateral trade and investment (BTI) agreements with its strategic allies. ticfa-us

Seamless transition: The dictators mining Bangladesh

In northern Bangladesh, a 17km-long industrial conveyor belt carries in limestone from a mine on the other side of the border with India. It feeds a cement-making factory, which ships its output down a river to the capital, Dhaka. There the stone—mined in India and processed in the Bangladeshi hinterland—becomes, block by block, part of one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. Your correspondent had always wanted to see this conveyor belt, not least to find out if a customs officer is there to man it. But those plans were swiftly pushed to the side by another, even more tantalising idea. Apparently, back in 1994, North Korea’s late dictator, Kim Jong Il, deployed his own country’s miners to a different bit of northern Bangladesh—to help to develop a mine there. This is a mi...

Reality squeezes a new startup

A startup tote-bag maker in Bangladesh is testing the limits of the country’s rough and tumble garment industry. Kazi Monir Hossain, a volunteer rescue worker at the deadly RanaPlaza garment building collapse in April, wanted to help factory workers get back to work after the disaster. But many swore they would never set foot in a garment factory again. So  Hossain used donor money to set up a business making jute and cotton bags. Four months into the venture, Oporajeo—the Bangla word for “invincible”—employs 21 former RanaPlaza workers. In a small workshop on the same street as their former worksite, the recruits sew coarse and colorful jute into simple tote bags, flower-patched purses and wine carriers. “Once upon a time jute was very famous in Bangladesh,” says  Hossain. “We...
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