The December 2021 issue of Thinking Aloud focuses on “50 years of Bangladesh’s Development: Achievements and Challenges”. This special issue of Thinking Aloud features an article titled “50 years of Bangladesh’s Development: Achievements and Challenges” comprising the first, second and third pages. The article discusses Bangladesh’s journey of development, challenges and future prospects. A historical context of the economic dynamics of the country has been presented in the article. Looking into economic growth and structural transformation, the article analyses the sources of Bangladesh’s growth. Issues regarding remittances and foreign direct investment have also been addressed by the article. Analysing the tax reform initiatives of the country, the article assesses the overall fiscal situation and its impact on growth and poverty reduction. The article further sheds light on external financing of the economy and the implications of the country’s current account balance trends. Contextualizing labour market issues in terms of employment, SDGs and demographic dividend, the article identifies the challenges to female and youth employment generation. Acknowledging the progress made by Bangladesh in tackling poverty and inequality, the article points out the underlying pitfalls of poverty alleviation initiatives. Increasing income inequality, regional disparities and the associated socio-economic issues have been discussed in great details in the article. The article further assesses the education sector of Bangladesh and expresses concern over low public expenditure on education. Taking into consideration the challenges posed to the health sector of Bangladesh, the article ponders over the critical aspects of the public and private healthcare services and public expenditure in healthcare. NGOs and microcredit have contributed on a number of parameters to further the development of Bangladesh, as acknowledged by the article. Given the advent of global climate crisis, Bangladesh needs to prepare accordingly, the article argues. The COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges the pandemic has created have also been explored by the article. In conclusion, the article presents a summary of the lessons learned over the half-a-century development journey of Bangladesh. The fourth page presents an account of the events organized by SANEM in the month of November 2021.
