Economic and Social Progress of Bangladesh: A Comparative Study with Some Asian Countries

Bangladesh has experienced remarkable economic growth in the last few decades. The study overviewed the various macroeconomic and social development indicators of Bangladesh compared with the other three Asian countries, India, Pakistan, and Turkey, over the first 20 years of the 21st century. It evaluated the human development index (HDI), income inequality, labor freedom, political environment, electricity users, people using drinking water, and suicide rates as social and human indicators. However, economic development is assessed through economic growth, remittances, the business freedom index, corporate tax rates, and the investment freedom index. All data are collected from the World Bank data bank and various graphs, and figures are used to justify the improvement. The study found that Bangladesh had the lowest corporate tax rate among these three South Asian countries during the period. It also increased the investment freedom index by 15 points, the highest improvement among its neighboring countries. During 2015-2019, Bangladesh achieved the highest position in the labor freedom index among all four countries. Additionally, it saw major improvements in electricity access, from about 30% in 2001 to around 80% in 2018. This country also leads in demographic attributes and rural access to drinking water among India and Pakistan. However, several indicators show Bangladesh has improved at a dissatisfactory level compared to other countries during the same period.