BANGLADESH
BASIC INFO:
Population 2017 157,826,578
GDP per capita 2017 (PPI, US$)... 4,200
GDP 2017 (PPI, US$ billions) 261.4
Unemployment 2017 4%
Total Area 148,460 sq km
Urban Population 36.6%
Life expectancy at birth (years) 73.4
Mortality rate, (per 1,000 live births) 31.7
Illiteracy (% of population age 15+) 27.2%
History
The area that came to be Bangladesh was ruled by Buddhist kings for 400 hundred years until being conquered by the Muslims about 1200 A.D. In the 16th century it was absorbed into the Moghul Empire and by 1642 the British had arrived in the form of the British East India Company. One hundred years later, the area was entirely under British rule. In 1947, India achieved independence with Hindu (West) Bengal assigned to India and the East (Muslim) area given to Pakistan. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the Eastern Bengal claimed its own independence with civil war ensuing. An astounding 10 million refugees fled to India. Since independence, Bangladesh has remained one of the world's poorest nations, marked by instability in every realm along with a tendency to be in the path of natural disasters.
Government
Government type:
parliamentary republic
Capital:
name: Dhaka
Administrative divisions:
8 divisions; Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Sylhet
Independence:
16 December 1971 (from West Pakistan)
National holiday:
Independence Day, 26 March (1971); Victory Day, 16 December (1971); note - 26 March 1971 is the date of the Awami League's declaration of an independent Bangladesh, and 16 December (Victory Day) memorializes the military victory over Pakistan and the official creation of the state of Bangladesh
Constitution:
history: previous 1935, 1956, 1962 (pre-independence); latest enacted 4 November 1972, effective 16 December 1972, suspended March 1982, restored November 1986
amendments: proposed by the House of the Nation; approval requires at least two-thirds majority vote by the House membership and assent to by the president of the republic; amended many times, last in 2014 (2017)
Legal system:
mixed legal system of mostly English common law and Islamic law
International law organization participation:
has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; accepts ICCt jurisdiction
Citizenship:
citizenship by birth: no
citizenship by descent only: at least one parent must be a citizen of Bangladesh
dual citizenship recognized: yes, but limited to select countries
residency requirement for naturalization: 5 years
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
chief of state: President Abdul HAMID (since 24 April 2013); note - Abdul HAMID served as acting president following the death of Zillur RAHMAN in March 2013; HAMID was subsequently indirectly elected by the National Parliament and sworn in 24 April 2013
head of government: Prime Minister Sheikh HASINA (since 6 January 2009)
cabinet: Cabinet selected by the prime minister, appointed by the president
elections/appointments: president indirectly elected by the National Parliament for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 7 February 2018 (next to be held by 2023); the president appoints as prime minister the majority party leader in the National Parliament
election results: President Abdul HAMID (AL) reelected by the National Parliament unopposed for a second term; Sheikh HASINA reappointed prime minister as leader of the majority AL party following parliamentary elections in 2014
Legislative branch:
description: unicameral House of the Nation or Jatiya Sangsad (350 seats; 300 members in single-seat territorial constituencies directly elected by simple majority popular vote; 50 members - reserved for women only - indirectly elected by the elected members by proportional representation vote using single transferable vote; all members serve 5-year terms)
elections: last held on 5 January 2014 (next to be held by January 2019); note - the 5 January 2014 poll was marred by widespread violence, boycotts, general strikes, and low voter turnout
election results: percent of vote by party - AL 79.1%, JP (Ershad) 11.3%, WP 2.1%, JSD 1.8%, other 1%, independent 4.8%; seats by party - AL 234, JP 34, WP 6, JSD 5, other 5, independent 15; 1 seat repolled
Judicial branch:
highest court(s): Supreme Court of Bangladesh (organized into the Appellate Division with 7 justices and the High Court Division with 99 justices)
judge selection and term of office: chief justice and justices appointed by the president; justices serve until retirement at age 67
subordinate courts: subordinate courts: civil courts include: Assistant Judge's Court; Joint District Judge's Court; Additional District Judge's Court; District Judge's Court; criminal courts include: Court of Sessions; Court of Metropolitan Sessions; Metropolitan Magistrate Courts; Magistrate Court; special courts/tribunals
Political parties and leaders:
Awami League or AL [Sheikh HASINA]
Bangladesh Nationalist Front or BNF [Abdul Kalam AZADI]
Bangladesh Nationalist Party or BNP [Khaleda ZIA]
Bangladesh Tariqat Federation or BTF [Syed Nozibul Bashar MAIZBHANDARI]
Jamaat-i-Islami Bangladesh or JIB (Makbul AHMAD)
Jatiya Party or JP (Ershad faction) [Hussain Mohammad ERSHAD]
Jatiya Party or JP (Manju faction) [Anwar Hossain MANJU]
Liberal Democratic Party or LDP [Oli AHMED]
National Socialist Party or JSD [KHALEQUZZAMAN]
Workers Party or WP [Rashed Khan MENON]
People
Bangladesh is noted for the ethnic homogeneity of its population. Over 98 percent of the people are Bengalis, predominantly Bangla-speaking peoples. People speaking Arabic, Persian, and Turkic languages also have contributed to the ethnic characteristics of the region.
A member of the Indo-European family of languages, Bangla (sometimes called Bengali) is the official language of Bangladesh. Bangladeshis closely identify themselves with their national language.
ECONOMICS
Bangladesh's economy has grown roughly 6% per year since 2005 despite prolonged periods of political instability, poor infrastructure, endemic corruption, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the services sector, almost half of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product.
Garments, the backbone of Bangladesh's industrial sector, accounted for more than 80% of total exports in FY 2016-17. The industrial sector continues to grow, despite the need for improvements in factory safety conditions. Steady export growth in the garment sector, combined with $13 billion in remittances from overseas Bangladeshis, contributed to Bangladesh's rising foreign exchange reserves in FY 2016-17.
The recent influx of over 700,000 additional refugees from Burma will place pressure on the Bangladeshi government’s budget and the country’s rice supplies, which declined in 2017 in part because of record flooding. Recent improvements to energy infrastructure, including the start of liquefied natural gas imports in 2018, represent a major step forward in resolving a key growth bottleneck.
BANGLADESHNational Air Transport System
number of registered air carriers: 6
inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 30
annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers: 2,906,799
annual freight traffic on registered air carriers: 182,692,553 mt-km (2015)
Civil aircraft registration country code prefix:
S2 (2016)
Airports:
18 (2013)
country comparison to the world: 139
Airports - with paved runways:
total: 16
over 3,047 m: 2
2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
914 to 1,523 m: 1
under 914 m: 5 (2017)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 2
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
under 914 m: 1 (2013)
Heliports:
3 (2013)
Pipelines:
gas 2,950 km (2013)
Railways:
total: 2,460 km
broad gauge: 659 km 1.676-m gauge
narrow gauge: 1,801 km 1.000-m gauge (2014)
country comparison to the world: 68
Roadways:
total: 21,269 km
paved: 2,021 km
unpaved: 19,248 km (2010)
country comparison to the world: 106
Waterways:
8,370 km (includes up to 3,060 km of main cargo routes; network reduced to 5,200 km in the dry season) (2011)
country comparison to the world: 16
Merchant marine:
total: 306
by type: bulk carrier 28, container ship 4, general cargo 75, oil tanker 110, other 89 (2017)
country comparison to the world: 52
Ports and terminals:
major seaport(s): Chittagong
river port(s): Mongla Port (Sela River)
container port(s): Chittagong (1,392,104) (2011)
Tourism
Tourism is growing in Bangladesh. In 2016 650,000 tourist visited the country contributing 4.4% to the economy. It is expected to grow to 7% by 2021. In 2016 there were 1,057,000 jobs directly employed in the tourist industyr
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