Implications of China's Belt and Road Initiative for Bangladesh : A Strategic Analysis

This monograph evaluates how the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) intersects with Bangladesh’s development strategy and strategic autonomy. It inventories transport, energy, and industrial projects, then analyzes their economic viability, fiscal implications, and fit with national planning. Beyond finance and infrastructure, the study examines standards, technology transfer, and supply-chain integration, highlighting both opportunities—export diversification, logistics efficiency, industrial upgrading—and risks—debt sustainability, procurement opacity, and geostrategic exposure. It compares governance modalities across corridors and identifies practices that improve value for money: competitive tendering, robust environmental and social safeguards, and transparent project pipelines. The analysis situates Bangladesh within a multipolar regional order, arguing for diversification of partners, inter-operable standards, and a focus on bankable, climate-resilient assets. It closes by proposing a negotiation toolkit that emphasizes life-cycle costs, local content with quality, and measurable spillovers to jobs, exports, and technology absorption.