Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a nation built on water. The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta—the world's largest—forms 79% of the country's land area, with most territory never rising more than 10 meters above sea level. Dhaka sits at just 8 meters. Into this shifting, flood-prone landscape, 170 million people compress at densities exceeding 1,300 per square kilometer—among the highest on Earth. The arithmetic is stark: climate change poses existential risk to a country where rising seas and intensifying cyclones threaten the very land on which the population stands.

The economy has specialized intensely. Garments constitute 81.5% of exports ($39.35 billion in FY2024-25), employing 4 million workers—60% of them women. This concentration creates both strength and vulnerability. When the US imposed 37% tariffs in April 2025, the threat to Bangladesh's primary export industry triggered emergency diplomacy; tariffs were reduced to 20% hours before the August deadline. As the world's second-largest garment supplier, Bangladesh's niche is too important to global supply chains to be easily eliminated.

2024 brought dramatic political upheaval. Student protests over job quotas escalated into nationwide unrest, leaving an estimated 1,400 dead and forcing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India in August. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus now leads an interim government. The transition cost an estimated $10 billion; 245 factories closed, affecting 100,000 workers. Yet FDI grew 20%, suggesting investors see opportunity in the reset.

China has moved quickly: $2.9 billion in loans and investments followed Yunus's March 2025 Beijing visit. Meanwhile, floods from India's Tripura displaced millions and disrupted garment supply chains. Bangladesh's future depends on managing three intersecting challenges: political transition, climate adaptation, and maintaining the garment industry's competitiveness.