Bangladesh, officially the People’s Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Myanmar to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. Bangladesh is a unitary state and parliamentary democracy. Direct elections in which all citizens, aged 18 or over, can vote are held every five years for the unicameral parliament known as Jatiya Sangsad or House of Nation. Currently, the parliament has 350 members including 50 reserved seats for women, elected from single-member constituencies and each of the members called Member of Parliament (MP). For conducting the parliamentary session there is a Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The Prime Minister, as the head of government, forms the cabinet and runs the day-to-day affairs of state. The President is the head of state but mainly a ceremonial post elected by the parliament. The highest judicial body is the Supreme Court. Justices are appointed by the President. Bangladesh has a three-tier local government system. The whole country is divided into Eight major administration divisions headed by commissioners. Divisions are subdivided into sixty-four districts (Zila) and the capital of districts is called district seat (Zila Sadar). The Districts are further sub-divided into 493 sub-districts or upazilaBangladesh pursues a moderate foreign policy that places heavy reliance on multinational diplomacy, especially at the United Nations. In 1974 Bangladesh joined both the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations and has since been elected to serve two terms on the Security Council in 1978–1979 and 2000–2001. In the 1980s, Bangladesh played a lead role in founding the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in order to swell relations with other South Asian states. Bangladesh’s most important and complex foreign relationships are with India. These relationships are informed by historical and cultural ties and form an important part of the domestic political discourse. Bangladesh also enjoys relatively warm ties with the People’s Republic of China. Although two-thirds of Bangladeshis are farmers, Bangladesh is in the process of a transition from a predominantly agrarian economy to an industrial and service economy. The private sector is playing an increasingly active role in the economic life of the country, while the public sector concentrates more on the physical and social infrastructure. Bangladesh has seen a dramatic increase in foreign direct investment. A number of multinational corporations and local big business houses such as Beximco, Square, Akij Group, Ispahani, Navana Group, Transcom Group, Habib Group, KDS Group, Dragon Group and multinationals such as Unocal Corporation and Chevron, have made major investments, with the natural gas sector being a priority. In December 2007, the Central Bank of Bangladesh projected GDP growth around 7.3%. In order to enhance economic growth, the government set up several export processing zones to attract foreign investment. These are managed by the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority. The country’s main exports are readymade garments & knitwear, jute, tea, seafood, meat, ceramic and leather products. Recently it has received interest from international energy companies attracted by the existence of significant onshore and offshore gas reserves. A large part of foreign currency earnings also comes from the remittances sent by expatriates living in other countries. More than three-quarters of Bangladesh’s export earnings come from the garment industry, which began attracting foreign investors in the 1980s due to cheap labor and low conversion cost. In the 2018-19 fiscal year, the industry exported US$ 34.13 billion worth of products wherein the 2018-19 fiscal year the exported amount was US$ 40.53 billion. Recently Bangladesh has been ranked as the 2nd largest RMG exporter by the WTO (The World Trade Organization). The industry now employs more than 4.4 million workers, 90% of whom are women. According to the World Bank, “among Bangladesh’s most significant obstacles to growth are poor governance and weak public institutions.” Despite these hurdles, the country has achieved an average annual growth rate of 7.3% since 1990, according to the World Bank. Bangladesh has seen the expansion of its middle class (world’s Fifty Forth largest, just below of Singapore & Vietnam), and its consumer industry has also grown. In December 2017, four years after its report on the emerging “BRIC” economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), Goldman Sachs named Bangladesh one of the “Next Eleven”, along with Egypt, Indonesia, Vietnam, and seven other countries.