As we wait to greet the new year with new resolutions and dreams, this article looks back at 2023 in retrospect to assess where one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Bangladesh, is headed. Here are the top 16 picks from 2023.
The capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, home to nearly 22.4 million people, is the seventh most densely populated city in the world. However, the plague of traffic congestion brings the metropolis to a standstill. The average speed of traffic on the roads of this megacity is 4.5 km/h. Each day, traffic jams waste 3.2 million work hours, coercing the residents of the city to add an additional 2 to 3 hours to their commute plan.
Successive governments have failed to devise a pro-citizen urban development plan that would include an integrated public transit system throughout the city, emphasizing Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) to build a more walkable, safe, and environment-friendly Dhaka. The car-centric, motorized culture of Dhaka has led to an unhealthy rise in car ownership, adding roughly 15,000 cars to the city’s already congested streets.
Just like New York City’s subways or Hong Kong’s public transit, Dhaka now has the Dhaka Metro Rail connecting all the major parts of the city to an integrated metro system that the city’s residents can access by purchasing a one-time ticket or a Metro Pass. Through the MRT Line 6, it takes only 31 minutes to commute from Uttara to Motijheel, which previously required around 2 hours by bus. As the TSC and Shahbagh stations have opened their gates for commuters, it will perhaps take me close to 18-20 minutes to sit on a metro ride from Mirpur-10 and reach IBA, DU.
Just like the Dhaka Metro Rail, the Dhaka Elevated Expressway (DEE) is navigating the hurdles of the city’s traffic by reducing traffic congestion. It has established an alternative route throughout the city and proven to be instrumental in connecting various factories and the expanding international airport in the northern part of the city and indirectly or directly serving the main port of Chittagong in the southern region.
The DEE is significantly reducing travel times, converting journeys that previously took hours into mere minutes. It now takes only 13 minutes to travel the 11 km distance from the airport to Farmgate. In addition, the DEE is facilitating business by enabling trucks carrying goods to enter the city 24/7 without interrupting the city’s daytime traffic.
Once both the Dhaka Elevated Expressway and the Dhaka-Ashulia Expressway become operational, individuals traveling from the northern, western, and southwestern regions of the country will have the ability to traverse from one side of the city to the other without even entering the city streets.
Hazrat Shahjalal International (HSI) Airport, Dhaka, is the country’s prime airport, which facilitates most of the domestic and international air travel. As the air traffic and cargo handling of the airport are expected to rise over the years, the 3rd terminal is pivotal for the continued expansion and modernization of the airport.
15 Self-Service
Check-in counters
5 e-gates
For immigration
66 Departure
Immigration Counters
55 Arrival
Immigration Counters
As part of the expansion project, the HSI airport will now have 2 rapid exit taxiways, 26 boarding bridges (12 operational since soft launch), 16 conveyor belts, 115 check-in counters, including 15 self-service check-in counters, 66 departure immigration counters, including 10 automatic passport control counters, and 59 arrival immigration desks, including 5 e-gates. Terminal 3 will offer an additional 5,42,000 square meters of parking apron, which will allow the airport to park around 37-42 aircraft, more than its current capacity. Also, the 3rd terminal will accommodate an additional 1250 cars in the airport as it offers more parking space.
Bangladesh’s commercial capital, Chattogram, has long needed an alternative to the Kalurghat bridge to reduce travel time, distance, and costs. The Karnaphuli River, connected to the Bay of Bengal, is the gateway for Bangladesh to global trade and commerce. To strengthen the country’s economic vibrancy, the Bangladesh government has built South Asia’s first ever underwater multi-lane tunnel, the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel.
This 3.4 kilometer long tunnel has reduced the distance between Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar by 40 km, while the vehicle traveling through the tunnel can run at a maximum speed of 60km/h. The tunnel is expected to add an estimated BDT 36 million each year to the country’s economy. In addition, it is expected to accommodate more than 28,000 vehicles each day by 2025 and 162,000 vehicles every day by 2067. The tunnel is projected to earn around USD 112.5 million per year by 2062 while saving USD 12.9 million per year.
For a land-scarce nation like Bangladesh, railway-based mass transportation is one of the major ways to untangle the communication bottlenecks. As the country is attempting to position itself as a global manufacturing hub, solving the logistical problem through railways can be proven instrumental.
215 km
Distance reduced between Dhaka and Khulna
187 km
Distance reduced between Dhaka and Jashore
The Bangladesh government inaugurated the 6.15km Padma Rail Bridge, which is projected to add 1% to the country’s GDP. The Padma Rail Link will reduce the 187 km distance between Dhaka and Jashore. The Bhanga-Jashore section of the Padma Rail Link will cut the distance between Dhaka and Khula by half, as it will be reduced by 215 km and come down to 207 km. The Rail Link will facilitate goods carriage, accelerating trade in Bangladesh and strengthening the internal supply chain.
The Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar Railway, with its iconic railway station, spans 102 km with Asia’s first ever elephant overpass on rail track. The railway station features a stix-story station building with an area of 187,037 square feet, spanning 29 acres of land. The project is expected to generate a 14.8% economic rate of return and BDT 88,697 million per year in net benefit by 2046. The railway will potentially ensure cost savings of BDT 4,472 million in 2024, which is expected to reach BDT 11,866 million by 2046.
14.8% ERR
Economic Rate of Return
BDT 88,697 Million
Net benefit per year by 2046
BDT 4,472 Million
Cost savings in 2024
The Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar Railway will link the country to the Trans Asian Railway, connecting Bangladesh to West Bengal and Myanmar. The broad-gauge lines of the railway will facilitate communication and trade not just within Bangladesh but also across the region.
Article 15 of Bangladesh’s constitution mandates the state to ensure ‘the right to social security’ for its citizens. As the Bangladesh government administers more than 140 social safety net programmes to uplift the underserved segments of the population, the Universal Pension Scheme (UPS) launched by the government, aims to bring around 100 million people under voluntary pension coverage. Under UPS, all Bangladeshi citizens aged between 18 and 50 years, including expatriates, will be able to receive a monthly pension once they reach the age of 60.
Citizens have to pay a fixed amount of premium for at least 10 years based on their socio-economic status and capacity. Upon reaching the age of 60, the pension will commence, allowing the elderly to reap the benefits of UPS till their last breath. If a beneficiary chooses to withdraw their deposited funds at any stage, they have the option to retrieve up to 50% of the total amount as a loan. Both the deposited premium and pension payments will be granted tax exemption.
The government has initially launched 4 pension packages out of 6: Progoti, Shurukkha, Probash, and Shomota. The UPS is a blend or combination of both contributory and non-contributory pension schemes. Among the 4 announced packages, 3 packages are entirely contributory, whereas only Somota has elements of non-contributory pension scheme.
Progoti is targeted at formal private sector employees. The Surokkha scheme targets individuals employed in the informal sector so that they can remain financially solvent and satiate their necessities at a senile age. The Probash package is for expatriate Bangladeshis who can contribute in foreign currency. The Somota scheme is uniquely designed for the ultra-poor in which contribution payments will be divided among the government and beneficiaries, as the individual will contribute BDT 500 and the rest, BDT 500, will be paid by the government.
On November 12, 2023, the Bangladesh government inaugurated South Asia’s largest and country’s first green urea fertilizer factory, the Ghorasal Polash Urea Fertilizer Factory, to reduce reliance on fertilizer imports and facilitate food security sustainably. The factory has a daily production capacity of 2,800 MT per day and an annual production capacity of 1,022,000 MT. Larger than mega projects such as Karnaphuli Tunnel or Dhaka Elevated Expressway, the project is one of the very largest mega projects undertaken by GoB.
1,022,000 MT
Annual Production Capacity
30,000 People
To be employed
BDT 22/kg
Production Cost
The factory is expected to create employment for around 30,000 people. While it takes BDT 96/kg to import urea, it only costs BDT 22/kg to produce urea in this plant, saving around BDT 7,000 crore per annum in import costs. The plant will significantly reduce the reliance on imports, as combining the factories with all the local factories will together produce 1.9 million MT against the country’s annual demand of 2.6-2.9 million MT of urea fertilizer.
Bangladesh has announced its ‘Indo-Pacific Outlook’ (IPO), focusing on the expansion and continued engagement in constructive regional and international cooperation processes, which are instrumental for both Bangladesh’s and the region’s sustainable growth. Championing Bangladesh’s balanced and non-aligned position in global diplomacy, the IPO promotes stability, peace, and prosperity in the region by ensuring cooperation from all parties.
- Strengthen mutual trust and respect, forge partnerships and cooperation, and promote dialogue and understanding with the aim of ensuring peace, prosperity, security and stability for all in the Indo-Pacific.
- Strengthen existing mechanisms on maritime safety and security in the Indo-Pacific, including response to emergencies at sea and conduct of search & rescue, and uphold the exercise of freedom of navigation & over-flight, in accordance with international law and relevant international conventions, including UNCLOS, 1982.
- Maintain meaningful and value-driven contribution to international non-proliferation, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and counter-terrorism efforts, including with partners in the Indo-Pacific.
- Support regional and international efforts towards combating transnational organized crimes in the Indo-Pacific through both normative and practical actions.
- Expand global lead on the flagship agenda of a ‘culture of peace’, enhance focus on the ‘women, peace and security’ agenda, promote interfaith harmony and work towards building peaceful, just and inclusive societies in the Indo-Pacific.
- Promote open, transparent, rules-based multilateral systems that enable equitable and sustainable development in the Indo-Pacific and beyond through inclusive economic growth, right to development and shared prosperity for all.
- Enhance physical, institutional, energy, digital and human connectivity, facilitate movement of goods, services, capital, and people in a systematic manner, and promote technology transfer, access to innovations and responsible behavior in open and secure cyberspace and outer space.
- Leverage the domestic agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors towards building resilient regional and global value chains to better manage future crisis and disruptions and to promote unimpeded and free flow of commerce in the Indo-Pacific.
- Promote conservation, sustainable use and management of oceans, seas, and marine resources in the Indo-Pacific in pursuance of SDG-14 and other relevant internationally agreed development commitments.
- Engage proactively in promoting food security, water solidarity, and disaster risk reduction in the Indo-Pacific, including through disseminating home-grown good practices.
- Continue tangible work towards addressing the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, marine pollution, and other significant and harmful impacts on the environment in line with relevant international conventions and commitments.
- Foster cooperation among Indo-Pacific countries to ensure energy security for all, including through investment and technology transfer on renewable energy.
- Work towards developing coordinated response to future pandemics and ensuring health security, including through access for all to global public goods like vaccines, diagnostics and other treatments.
- Collaboration with sub-regional partners and relevant organizations towards bolstering regional cooperation and enhancing mutually beneficial complementarities.
- Strengthen collaboration and cooperation in science, technology, research and innovation for shared benefits of all, in keeping with the vision of ‘Smart Bangladesh’.
As the world navigates its way through an energy crisis, Bangladesh is gradually diversifying its energy mix by reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. As the home of the world’s largest off-grid solar power program and the world’s first peer-to-peer energy trading model, the country has completed the construction of 10 large scale solar power plants, which are already operational.
8 Solar Parks
In Pipeline
22 Solar Parks
In Planning
The largest solar power plant in the country is the Solar Park by Beximco, located in Gainbandha. The plant has 52,000 solar panels with a capacity of 200 MWp. A total of 8 solar parks are in the pipeline, and 22 solar parks are in the planning phase.
In its efforts to further diversify the energy mix with renewables, Bangladesh has built the country’s largest wind power project, the Khurushkul Wind Power Project in Cox’s Bazar, which has a capacity of 60 megawatts.
On May 25, 2023, the plant was connected to the national grid, and on May 26, the project began contributing to the nation’s overall electricity supply through the national grid. The project contributed 27 lakh kilowatt hours of electricity to the national grid in June 2023. For the next 18 years, the BPDB will purchase power from the plant at a rate of $0.12 per unit.
This project will involve the installation of a total of 22 wind turbines, each of which will have a capacity of 3 megawatts (MW) to generate power. The Khuruskul, Chawfaldandi, PM Khali, and Pokkhali unions that fall under the Sadar Upazila of Cox’s Baxar will each get one of the up to 22 turbines that will be erected there in order to generate power. Each turbine will have a height of 110 meters. The length of each blade is 60 meters, yet the tower itself is 90 meters tall.
When fully operational, the project is anticipated to have the capacity to generate 145,600 megawatts of power annually. It is estimated that this measure will cut annual emissions by 109,200 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), 25.15 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), and 50.69 tons of nitric oxide (NO). Additionally, it will cut annual coal usage by 44,600 tons.
To build a circular economy and add a sustainable source of energy. Bangladesh is aiming to build its first waste-to-energy power plant in Dhaka’s Amin Bazar. The power plant is estimated to produce 42.5 MW of power each day, employing 3,000 tonnes of mixed rubbish per day in form of raw materials
Along with the 6 MW Narayanganj waste-to-energy generating plant and the Kaultia waste-to-energy power plant, the Aminbazar project will make energy much more affordable, build a circular economy, and further Bangladesh’s aim to achieve energy security in the longer run.
To transform Bangladesh into an aviation hub, the country has finalized a deal for 10 Airbus A350s during Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Bangladesh. The European multinational aerospace corporation Airbus has signed an MoU with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Aviation and Aerospace University (BSMRAAU) to assist the university in designing their curriculum, materials, and syllabus while conducting classroom courses each year by Airbus trainers in their ab initio school in Lalmonirhat. In addition, the company intends to cooperate with Bangladesh in air traffic management and operations.
On October 22, 2023, the Ministry of Public Administration (MoPA) under the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) announced the country’s first ever ‘Internship Policy 2023’ to allow graduates and postgraduates to intern at government, semi-government, autonomous, and private organizations in the country.
This new internship policy aims to bridge the governance divide between the youth and the government. The policy has its roots in an internship program started by CRI-Young Bangla, namely the Vision 2021 Internship Programme. Since its launch, the programme has placed 2,850 youth as interns in various government ministries, not-for-profit organizations, and private sector entities.
Bangladesh has formally adopted its new education curriculum in 2023 that is based on competency-based curriculum, experiential and collaborative learning, and an exam-free assessment system.
Instead of assessing students with traditional exams, the curriculum focuses on evaluating based on learning and completing specific competencies over time. Experiential learning allows children to learn from experiencing reality, instead of memorizing abstract concepts. As team work has become a critical interpersonal skill, a collaborative learning approach allows students to learn leadership and managerial skills which are omnipresent in every career.
In the status quo, Bangladesh’s banking system is massively reliant on international card schemes such as Mastercard and Visa to issue credit and debit cards. The commercial banks of Bangladesh have to spend huge amounts of dollars to access membership in such international card schemes. These card schemes manage payment transactions done by credit and debit cards. However, due to such dependency on card schemes, the country has to forgo a massive amount of foreign reserves as the transaction costs of each transfer have to be repaid in US dollars.
To offer a viable alternative of such international card schemes and reduce the expenses of foreign exchange, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has launched Bangladesh’s first national card scheme, Taka Pay on November 1, 2023, The electronic payment platform run by the Bangladesh Bank, the National Payment Switch of Bangladesh, will be used to provide services of TakaPay. To further extend the services of TakaPay beyond the borders of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bank is aiming to launch the “Taka-Rupee Card” which will enable users to shop in India.
Initially, the card will act as a debit card and will be accepted by all ATMs, point of sale and online platforms across Bangladesh. In the future, credit cards will be introduced. One state-owned bank Sonali Bank, and two private banks City Bank and Brac Bank will start issuing the TakaPay card in collaboration with Bangladesh’s central bank, Bangladesh Bank. Five new banks, including United Commercial Bank, Eastern Bank, Islami Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, and Mutual Trust Bank will soon join the national card scheme.
About the Author
Shah Adaan Uzzaman is the Blog Administrator at The Confluence. A former Bangladesh Television Debate Champion and winner of several policy & debate competitions, he is currently a student of IBA, University of Dhaka.