GLOBALIZATION AND RECENT CHANGES IN THE ECONOMY OF BANGLADESH

This article examines the impact of globalization on the economy of Bangladesh during the 1990s and early 2000s. It analyzes how the processes of trade liberalization, financial integration, and the information revolution have reshaped the country's economic structure and performance. The study assesses both the opportunities and the challenges presented by globalization. The research highlights the significant growth in the export-oriented ready-made garment (RMG) sector as a key benefit of integration into the global economy. However, it also explores the challenges, including increased competition for domestic industries, the pressures of structural adjustment, and the country's vulnerability to external economic shocks. The paper argues that successfully navigating globalization requires a proactive national strategy. The analysis concludes that Bangladesh needs to focus on enhancing its competitiveness, diversifying its export base, and investing in human capital to maximize the benefits and mitigate the risks of global economic integration.

The term "globalization" dominated development discourse at the turn of the millennium. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the concrete changes that this process brought to the economy of Bangladesh. The study begins by defining the key dimensions of globalization and then traces their specific manifestations in the Bangladeshi context. The core of the article is an examination of the impact of trade liberalization. It details the phenomenal expansion of the RMG sector, which became the engine of the country's export growth, and analyzes this as a textbook case of a developing country successfully integrating into a global value chain. The paper then provides a more critical perspective, analyzing the challenges that came with this integration. It discusses the "race to the bottom" in terms of labor standards and the profound vulnerability of the entire economy to the business cycles of its main export markets in North America and Europe. The study also explores the impact of financial globalization and the policy constraints imposed by international financial institutions. The findings reveal a complex and dualistic picture. Globalization offered an unprecedented opportunity for export-led growth, but it also created new forms of dependency and vulnerability. The paper concludes that the central policy challenge for Bangladesh was to manage this trade-off: to remain open to the opportunities of the global economy while building the domestic institutional capacity to manage its risks and ensure that the benefits of growth were shared equitably.