KEY RESULTS

• In the perspective of Bangladesh's graduation from least developed country (LDC) status, the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF)-supported technical assistance has helped prepare the country’s strategic ready-made garment, pharmaceutical and agro-processing sectors to move up the value chain and become more competitive.
• EIF support significantly enhanced the capacity of Government institutions to deal with multilateral trading systems by enabling stronger trade-related policymaking, supporting WTO-related coordination efforts and fostering stakeholder consultations.
• EIF support played a key role in empowering the WTO Wing at the Ministry of Commerce as a knowledge hub, helping the development of local expertise on international trade matters. Through participation in training sessions on WTO and other trade-related topics supported by the EIF, local experts have not only gained valuable knowledge but have also become trainers and advisors to the Government on international trade.

Seated at the northernmost point of the Bay of Bengal in South Asia, Bangladesh is home to some 171 million inhabitants, making it the eighth most populous country in the world. The EIF has been supporting Bangladesh since 2010, with a focus on trade-related institutional capacity-building, e-commerce and productive capacity improvements for the country’s garment, pharmaceutical and agro-processing sectors. 

Ready-made garments (RMGs) are Bangladesh’s largest export sector, and it is the second largest RMG exporter in the world, after China. Bangladesh has also seen significant growth in its pharmaceutical sector, with recent year-on-year growth as high as 27% (2021-2022) and exports reaching as many as 160 countries after fulfilling 98% of domestic demand. 

As the country prepares for graduation from LDC status in 2026, it is readying key industries to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and ensure that the economy continues its upward trajectory through its participation in the global trading system. Towards this future, the EIF has been partnering with the Government of Bangladesh and local institutions with a focus on pro-poor export and trade competitiveness. The EIF has supported capacity development, enabled policies and helped coordinate the public and private sectors to maximize sustainable trade and market competitiveness and contribute to the goal of decent work and better incomes. 

Establishing trade-related action priorities

The EIF supported two Diagnostic Trade Integration Studies (DTISs) for the Government of Bangladesh in 2016 and 2023. The 2016 DTIS, developed by the World Bank, was four years in the making and included numerous stakeholder consultations. The DTIS helped the Government better understand the need to prioritize key trade-related sectors, including RMGs, pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, jute and jute-based products, non-leather footwear, bicycles and information technology-enabled services.

For Bangladesh to fully benefit from international demand and emerging opportunities for export-based job creation, the 2016 DTIS grounded its priorities around four pillars: 1) contribute to breaking into new markets by improving trade logistics and exploiting regional trading opportunities; 2) encourage new products and spur domestic and FDI; 3) improve worker and consumer welfare, skills and literacy; and 4) strengthen institutional capacity for policymaking and the creation of a more supportive trade environment. The DTIS also sought to involve sectors that use both skilled and unskilled labour. The 2016 DTIS was incorporated into Bangladesh’s Seventh Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), providing a knowledge base for trade and competitiveness. 

Strengthening capacity for policymaking and implementation

To oversee the implementation of the Seventh Five-Year Plan and the DTIS Action Matrix, the WTO Wing – the equivalent of an EIF National Implementation Unit – was responsible for coordinating Aid for Trade donors and supporting the implementation of the DTIS Action Matrix, as integrated into the Seventh Five-Year Plan. The WTO Wing also helped establish a National Trade and Transport Facilitation Committee and a high‑level committee on e-commerce to implement the country’s National Digital Commerce Policy 2018. The WTO Wing is also responsible for stakeholder consultations and interministerial meetings and consulted on filing cases in the WTO dispute settlement body. 

From 2017 to 2019, over 1,200 Government officials from nearly 50 ministries, departments and agencies, along with private sector representatives and universities, benefited from EIF-supported training on trade-related themes. This training equipped these stakeholders with the skills needed to efficiently update policies, improve legislation and participate in trade-related fora. The long-term impact of these capacity‑building efforts has been significant – Bangladesh now has in-house trade law expertise, allowing it to rely on local experts rather than international consultants. In one notable case, local legal professionals led a bilateral dispute settlement with a neighbouring country, showcasing the country’s self-sufficiency on trade law and negotiations.

In addition, the WTO Wing coordinated policy reviews and studies and helped prepare papers that resulted in policies, policy updates and legislative instruments. Examples of these outcomes include Bangladesh's National Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Laboratory Reagents Production and Export Policy (2018); a Leather Products Policy (2019); the National Digital Commerce Policy (2018, as amended in 2020); and the updated Export and Import Policies (2021-2024). The 2016 DTIS formed the basis for these inter-related policy instruments, which would go on to inform the country’s trajectory to export competitiveness.

The 2023 DTIS Update (DTISU), or Trade Roadmap for Sustainable Graduation, built on the pillars established by the 2016 DTIS to develop a sector-specific trade roadmap to overcome trade-related challenges, including resource mobilization, for sustainable graduation from LDC status. Conducted by the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute, the DTISU increased the country’s strategic export sectors from 7 to 12, and expanded on some of those identified by the original DTIS. These sectors are RMGs; pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients; leather and leather goods; non-leather footwear; light engineering (including electronics and electrical products); shipbuilding; plastics and plastic products; agro-products and processed foods; fisheries and livestock; software and information technology (IT)-related services; tourism; and nursing and midwifery services.

Facilitating cross-border paperless trade

As Bangladesh advances its trade facilitation efforts, the EIF has also supported the country's participation in a regional initiative led by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Bangkok to enhance paperless trade. Implemented across Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Timor-Leste, this collaboration focused on developing voluntary trade facilitation and paperless trade action plans to eliminate bottlenecks and promote cross-border e-commerce. Through national studies, consultations and a regional workshop to disseminate lessons learned, Bangladesh strengthened its digital trade capacity. 

Separately, UNESCAP New Delhi, with EIF support, led an initiative to enhance e‑commerce opportunities for women entrepreneurs in Asian LDCs, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. As part of this effort, women entrepreneurs participated in e-commerce and digital marketing training sessions, equipping them with the skills needed to expand their businesses online. More than 100 women registered on the wesellonline.org platform created as part of the project, where they updated their product and service profiles. 

Bangladesh sets its sights on haute couture

With its dominance already established in the RMG export sector, Bangladesh is looking to break into the high-end global fashion sector. The EIF supported a three-year initiative to explore opportunities to link Bangladesh's rich culture and heritage with high-end international fashion through technical assistance and training on fashion design. This shift is part of the diversification goal set by the DTISs, which recommended improving the quality and the positioning of the country’s RMG export sector, while simultaneously raising productivity and increasing wages. 

In a partnership with the Ministry of Commerce and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the EIF supported the purchase of equipment for the BGMEA's Centre of Innovation Efficiency and Occupational Safety and Health (CIEOSH). Launched on 18 November 2022, the Centre serves as a knowledge hub for advanced technology, including Industry 4.0; global best practices in the apparel sector; and the latest trends in the global fashion industry. The EIF also supported training in the sector through an update of the academic curriculum on RMG and jute products, as well as support for training of trainers. 

In 2023, 160 garment sector workers, including fashion designers, traditional weavers, students and merchandisers, were trained by EIF-financed international fashion designers to produce runway-worthy garments using the country’s traditional materials, such as Jamdani, Khadi, Monipuri, silk and jute. These trainings took place at the newly established CIEOSH, further solidifying its role in providing technical know-how, knowledge-sharing and capacity-building initiatives for Bangladesh’s apparel industry.

Using international fashion designers as trainers enables product and strategy and development collaboration between Bangladesh's RMG sector, buyers and suppliers. This, in turn, strengthens relationships and facilitates economic and social upgrading along the value chain. 

Transforming food waste into opportunity

In a bid to combat food waste and enhance value addition in the food processing sector, Bangladesh has turned its attention to one of its most abundant yet underutilized resources – jackfruit and other locally grown fruits. With EIF support, targeted trainings have helped reduce post-harvest losses; address seasonal gaps in processed fruit availability; contribute to food security; and make use of unripe fruits often affected by natural calamities. A total of 600 participants, including students (64.5%) and women (49%), took part in these capacity-building initiatives. Additionally, as Bangladesh prepares for its LDC graduation in 2026, a specialized training programme was launched in collaboration with the BFTI to equip Government and private sector representatives with the knowledge needed to navigate the evolving trade landscape. In total, 240 participants were trained on WTO agreements, agricultural trade negotiations and the implications of LDC graduation on the sector, thus ensuring a smoother transition for Bangladesh’s agricultural exports.

Learning from doing

Among Bangladesh’s greatest assets is the capacity it has built and retained with support from the EIF and other development partners. The WTO Wing has been, and continues to be, used as a knowledge hub to connect the Government, the private sector and academia on trade-related issues, including food processing, entrepreneurship and textile innovation. The EIF’s technical assistance and training support to Government and private sector officials has also created long-term institutional capacity for Bangladesh, allowing the Government to be proactive in its approach and to successfully learn from doing. 

At the Government level, the capacity built into the WTO Wing has increased confidence to the extent that the Government has been able to leverage public and private co‑financing to improve export competitiveness. An example is the USD 100 million 2017-2023 World Bank-supported Export Competitiveness for Jobs project, which helped diversify exports in labour-intensive and globally competitive industries, such as the leather goods, footwear, light engineering and plastics sectors. 

Meanwhile, the skills developed among officials from nearly 50 institutions, including Government agencies, academia, the private sector, micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises and others, has led to local expertise on international trade-related issues. Bangladesh's universities have also played a key role in ensuring a sustainable pipeline of trade experts, further embedding WTO knowledge at the national level. As a result, trade policy officials and private sector stakeholders now possess greater capacity to utilize WTO-compliant trade remedies and the WTO dispute settlement system. Bangladesh's transition from relying on international human resources to nurturing its own in-house talent has positioned the country on a path toward successful export diversification and a more inclusive trade journey.