In the 21st century a much larger proportion of aggregate material progress has taken place in what our generation knew as the developing world. This growth has been multidimensional: income per person; increase in life expectancy, health and literacy; and reduction in the proportion of those who are in extreme poverty and destitution.

Reduction of gender inequality is a goal embraced by nations across the globe.

Whenever there is a discussion about trade, investments, exports and economic growth, quite often much focus is placed upon infrastructure as the core challenge of our export growth. But is it the only hurdle?

The annual budget of the central government of India is immediately preceded by an Economic Survey, designed to provide the background to the budget decisions.

I have been a voracious consumer of news trivia since my Dhaka University days when I was quite a BBC World News addict.

The Blue Economy is a new dimension of world economy which combines both aspects of economics and environment based on ocean

Bangladesh has made a major transition in its trade policy from a protectionist stance to a freer trade regime since the early 1990s as is reflected by the reduction in the average tariff rate from as high as 105 percent in 1990 to 13 percent in 2016

2017 was a year of spectacle for technology enthusiasts. Robotics, Big Data, and social media have enjoyed the limelight while Elon Musk, Nick Bostrom and Stephen Hawking have raised concerns about developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Living costs in Dhaka have soared so high that it's not just low-income groups struggling to make ends meet—the middle class is feeling the squeeze too.

With the year 2017 drawing to a close, we are left with both positive and not-so-positive observations from the country's stock market. We all know that after the crash in 2010, the market has been in the doldrums for several years.

Bringing multinationals to the stock market is one of those long-standing policy challenges regulators have been grappling with for many years now. On the surface, it appears to be an issue of designing the right incentive structure.

The 11th Ministerial Conference of the WTO (WTO MC11) is going to take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina between December 10-13.

China remains the undisputed global giant in the textile and apparel industry. Its share of global apparel export is about 37 percent while the share of Bangladesh, the second largest readymade garment exporter in the world, is only about 6 percent.

At a recent event in Dhaka, Dr Mirza Azizul Islam, the former finance adviser to caretaker government, identified a key dilemma that policymakers often face.

The year 2017 can be chalked down as a prosperous one for the world economy. Wherever we live, as we celebrate the end of a good year, we also welcome the incoming year, which, by all indications, we hope, will be a better one.

Bangladesh has been taking in Rohingya refugees from Myanmar since the 70s, right after independence, and the rate accelerated in the 1990s. Currently, we are sheltering, feeding, and providing various assistance to well over a million refugees and it is possible that the situation might get worse before it gets better.

The Rohingya refugee crisis has exposed Bangladesh's diplomatic weaknesses. No permanent member of the United Nations Security Council has strongly backed Dhaka to solve the refugee problem.

Discussions about development spending and reducing Bangladesh's climate vulnerability are often dominated—understandably—by politicians and donors. These are the decision-makers who affect how funds are spent.

We have some good news to cheer. According to a report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Bangladesh has become more competitive in 2017 as compared with 2016.

The debate over the excessive reliance on coal-based thermal power generation has very little to do with our negligible role in the exponential accumulation of atmospheric GHGs. Just to give you some context, in 2013, coal's share in power generation was about three percent. The 2016 Power Sector Master Plan proposes to raise it to 50 percent, totalling about 20,000 megawatts by 2030.