2000s in Bangladesh

In July 2001, the incumbent Bangladesh Awami League government stepped down to allow a caretaker government to preside over parliamentary elections. Political violence that had increased during the Bangladesh Awami League government's tenure continued to increase through the summer in the run up to the election. In August, The leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina agreed during a visit of former President Jimmy Carter to respect the results of the election, join Parliament win or lose, forswear the use of hartals (violently enforced strikes) as political tools, and if successful in forming a government allow for a more meaningful role for the opposition in Parliament. The caretaker government was successful in containing the violence, which allowed a parliamentary general election to be successfully held on 1 October 2001.[1]

Zia with the President of Brazil Lula da Silva (2004)

The Four Party Alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party won over a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Begum Khaleda Zia was sworn in on 10 October 2001, as Prime Minister for the third time (first in 1991, second after the 15 February 1996 elections).[1]

Despite her August 2001 pledge and all election monitoring groups declaring the election free and fair, Sheikh Hasina condemned the election, rejected the results, and boycotted Parliament. In 2002, however, she led her party legislators back to Parliament, but the Bangladesh Awami League again walked out in June 2003 to protest derogatory remarks about Hasina by a State Minister and the allegedly partisan role of the Parliamentary Speaker. In June 2004, the AL returned to Parliament without having any of their demands met. They then attended Parliament irregularly before announcing a boycott of the entire June 2005 budget session.[1]

On 17 August 2005, near-synchronized blasts of improvised explosive devices in 63 out of 64 administrative districts targeted mainly government buildings and killed two persons. An extremist Islamist group named Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) claimed responsibility for the blasts, which aimed to press home JMB's demand for a replacement of the secular legal system with Islamic sharia courts. Subsequent attacks on the courts in several districts killed 28 people, including judges, lawyers, and police personnel guarding the courts. A government campaign against the Islamic extremists led to the arrest of hundreds of senior and mid-level JMB leaders. Six top JMB leaders were tried and sentenced to death for their role in the murder of two judges; another leader was tried and sentenced to death in absentia in the same case.[1]

In February 2006, the AL returned to Parliament, demanded early elections and requested significant changes in the electoral and caretaker government systems to stop alleged moves by the ruling coalition to rig the next election. The AL blamed the BNP for several high-profile attacks on opposition leaders and asserted the BNP was bent on eliminating Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League as a viable force. The BNP and its allies accused the AL of maligning Bangladesh at home and abroad out of jealousy over the government's performance on development and economic issues. Dialogue between the Secretaries General of the main ruling and opposition parties failed to sort out the electoral reform issues.[1]

Hamid Karzai, Pervez Musharraf, and Fakhruddin Ahmed at the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

The months preceding the planned January 22, 2007, elections were filled with political unrest and controversy.[2] Following the end of Khaleda Zia's government in late October 2006, there were protests and strikes, during which 40 people were killed in the following month, over uncertainty about who would head the caretaker government. The caretaker government had difficulty bringing the all parties to the table. Awami League and its allies protested and alleged that the caretaker government favoured the BNP.[3]

The interim period was marked by violence and strikes.[4][5] Presidential Advisor Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury negotiated with Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia and brought all the parties to the planned 22 January 2007 parliamentary elections. Later Hussain Muhammad Ershad's nomination was cancelled; as a result, the Grand Alliance withdrew its candidates en masse on the last day possible.[6] They demanded to have voters' lists published.

Later in the month, the president Iajuddin Ahmed imposed a state of emergency. Iajuddin Ahmed resigned from the post of chief adviser, under the pressure of Bangladesh Army, and appointed Fakhruddin Ahmed, the new chief adviser. Political activity was prohibited.[7] The military-backed government worked to develop graft and corruption cases against leaders and members of both major parties. In March 2007, Khaleda Zia's two sons, who both had positions in Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were charged with corruption. Hasina was charged with graft and extortion in April 2007, and a day later, Khaleda Zia was charged with graft as well.[8][9][10] There was attempt by Bangladesh Army chief Moeen U Ahmed, the head of Anti-Terrorism division of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence Brigadier General ATM Amin, and Director of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence Brigadier General Chowdhury Fazlul Bari to remove Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia from politics.[11] Former Army Chief, General Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, was made the head of Bangladesh Anti Corruption Commission. The Anti Corruption Commission and the Bangladesh Election Commission were strengthened by the caretaker government.[12] On 27 August 2007 violence broke out in the University of Dhaka campus between students and soldiers of Bangladesh Army. Students called strikes and burned effigies of the army chief. Police attacked the students and physically assaulted Acting Vice-chancellor Prof AFM Yusuf Haider and other faculty members of the University of Dhaka.[13] Students were joined in demonstration by street vendors and slum residents who were evicted by the government. Bangladesh Army agreed to the demands of the protesters and removed the Army camp from the University of Dhaka campus. Students and teachers expressed dissatisfaction over the continued state of emergency in Bangladesh.[14]

Sheikh Hasina with Vladimir Putin in Moscow

The Awami league won national election on 29 December 2008 as part of a larger electoral alliance that also included the Jatiya Party led by former military ruler General Hussain Muhammad Ershad as well as some leftist parties. According to the Official Results,[15] Bangladesh Awami League won 230 out of 299 constituencies, and together with its allies, had a total of 262 parliamentary seats.[16] The Awami League and its allies received 57% of the total votes cast. The AL alone got 48%, compared to 36% of the other major alliance led by the BNP which by itself got 33% of the votes. Sheikh Hasina, as party head, is the new Prime Minister. Her term of office began on 7 January 2009 after Fakhruddin Ahmed.[17][18] The new cabinet had several new faces, including three women in prominent positions: Dr Dipu Moni (Foreign Minister), Matia Chowdhury (Agriculture Minister) and Sahara Khatun (Home Minister). Younger MPs with a link to assassinated members of the 1972–1975 AL government are Syed Ashraful Islam, son of Syed Nazrul Islam, Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, son of Sheikh Fazlul Huq Moni, and Tanjim Ahmad Sohel Taj, son of Tajuddin Ahmad.

Since 2009, the Awami League government faced several major political challenges, including BDR (border security force) mutiny,[19] power crisis,[20] unrest in garments industry[21] and stock market fluctuations.[22] Judicial achievements for the party included restoring 1972 constitution (set by the first Awami League government),[23] beginning of war crimes trials,[24] and guilty verdict in 1975 assassination trial.[25] According to the Nielsen 2-year survey, 50% felt the country was moving in the right direction, and 36% gave the government a favourable rating.[26]

Army convoy gathering behind the tanks near Abahani ground on 26 February 2009

On 25 and 26 February 2009, section of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), a paramilitary force mainly tasked with guarding the borders of Bangladesh, staged a mutiny that brought the national life to a standstill. The rebelling BDR soldiers took over the BDR headquarters in Pilkhana, killing the BDR Director-General and some army officers. They also fired on civilians, held many of their officers hostage, vandalised property and looted valuables. By the second day, unrest had spread to 12 other towns and cities.[27][28]

Eventually, a total of seventy-four people were killed.[29] Among them were 57 army officers seconded to the BDR. The Chief of the BDR, the Deputy Chief and all 16 Sector Commanders died during the revolt.[30] The mutiny ended as the mutineers surrendered their arms and released the hostages[31] after a series of discussions and negotiations with the government.[32]

Compared to prior decade the average winter temperature from December to February increased by about 0.6 degree Celsius leading to overall average annual temperature increase by about 0.3 degree Celsius. Average rainfall decreased for July-Sep resulting in overall average annual rainfall decrease by about 31 cm.[34]

Cyclone Sidr making landfall in Bangladesh.

The extremely severe tropical cyclone, named Cyclone Sidr, was the major natural disaster in this decade. Sidr formed in the central Bay of Bengal, and quickly turned into a Category-5 equivalent tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.[35] The storm eventually made landfall in Bangladesh on November 15, 2007, causing large-scale evacuations.[36] At least 3,447 deaths have been blamed on the storm,.[37] Save the Children estimated the number of deaths associated with the cyclone to be between 3,100 and 10,000, while the Red Crescent Society reported on November 18 that the number of deaths could be up to 15,000.[38] International groups pledged US$95 million to repair the damage,[39] which was estimated at $1.7 billion (2007 USD).[39]

Besides there have been multiple flood events throughout the decade. In late summer 2002, heavy monsoon rains led to massive flooding in eastern India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, killing over 500 people and leaving millions homeless. There were estimated 3.5 million victims of flooding in 30 out of 64 districts.[40] In 2004, monsoon flood intensified from April to July leading to the destruction of the rice crop in the northern region just before it was harvested. Water persisted in these regions for 3 to 4 weeks whilst gradually draining southwards, severely flooding most of Central Bangladesh. The high water level and widest extent of the flood was reached on 24 July affecting 39 out of 64 districts and 36 million people.[41] In 2007 a series of floods impacted South Asia including Bangladesh.[42] During this flood an estimated 7.5 million people had fled their homes,[43] more than 50,000 people had diarrhoea or other waterborne diseases and more than 400,000 people took temporary shelters.[44]

Bangladesh GDP was USD 67.0 billion in 2000, which grew to USD 109.2 billion in 2009 (in 2010 constant dollar) signifying a 5.0% annual growth. Agricultural Sector contributed to 23.8% of GDP in the beginning of the decade, which decreased to 17.9% by the end. During the same period contribution from the industrial sector increased from 23.3% to 26.4% and that of the service sector increased from 52.9% to 55.7%.[33] Per capita GDP increased from USD 509 to USD 726 (in 2010 constant dollar).

According to World Development Indicators published by the World Bank,[33] on 2010 constant dollar basis, Bangladesh used to export USD 4.0 billion (12.3% of GDP) worth of goods and services as of 2000, which grew at annual average rate of 16.3% to USD 18.3 billion (16.9% of GDP) in 2009. The increase can be attributed to rapid growth in export oriented ready-made garments sector. During the same time import of goods and services grew from USD 6.4 billion (17.0% of GDP) to USD 24.9 billion (23.2% of GDP) - also driven by raw material import for ready-made garments industry. Over the decade, Foreign Direct Investment and Personal Remittances Receipt averaged 0.68% and 6.61% of GDP; while, total Reserve averaged at 21.6% of external debt and 2.9 month's coverage of import.

Gross National Income (at 2010 constant dollar) grew from USD 69.3 billion to USD 117.8 billion over the decade. At the beginning of this period External Debt stock (of which concessional debt was 94.8%) was 28.3% of Gross National Income (GNI) and External Debt Service burden was 1.4% of GNI. By the end of the decade, External Debt stock (of which concessional debt now was 78.8%) stood at 23.0% of GNI and External Debt Service burden was 0.9% of the same. During the same period Military expenditure decreased from 1.4% to 1.2% of GNI.[33]

Aggregate value addition from agricultural sector was USD 13.0 billion in 2000 (in 2010 constant USD), which grew at average annual rate of 3.6% to USD 18.5 billion by 2009 (in the same constant USD).[33] During this decade, crop production grew at an annual average rate of 3.1% driven by cereal production increase from 39.5 million metric tons to 49.7 million (implying annual growth of 2.3%) - enabled by improvement in cereal yield from 3384.4 kg per hectare to 4176 kg. At the same time livestock production grew at 3.2% per annum and fisheries production increased at annual rate of 5.7%. Altogether these contributed to overall food production increase by annualized rate of 3.1%.[33]

Net value addition from industrial sector, which stood at USD 14.0 billion in 2000 (in 2010 constant USD), grew at average annual rate of 6.7% to USD 26.9 billion by 2009 (in the same constant USD basis).[33] Manufacturing sector contributed 64.3% of industrial value added in the beginning of this period and it gradually changed to 64.8% by the end. There were 8,293 recorded industrial design applications by Bangladeshi residents in this decade, more than double of that from earlier decade.[33] As of 2005-06 there were 34,701 industrial establishments in the country generating employment for 3.34 million.[45]

On the other hand, net value addition from the service sector amounting USD 35.8 billion in 2000, also grew at average annual rate of 5.0% and stood at USD 58.4 billion by 2009 (in 2010 constant USD).[33] Major business enterprises that started journey in Bangladesh in this decade include Western Marine Shipyard in 2000, RanksTel and TeleTalk in 2004, United Airways in 2005, Best Air, NovoAir and Regent Power in 2007 and Walton in 2008.

The construction of new roads somewhat slowed down in 2000s compared to earlier decade, but several major bridges were constructed. The arterial road network under the jurisdiction of Roads and Highways department (R&HD) in 2001 was about 20,854 km including 3,144 km of national highways, 1,746 km of regional roads and 15,964 km of Type A feeder roads. By 2011, there were about 21,000 km of highways (including over 3,478 km of national highways and 4,221 km of regional highways) as well as 18,258 bridges to connect the roads.[46] In December 2000, over 406,000 different types of motorised vehicles were plying on the roads of Bangladesh, and the number rose to 852,416 by 2005.[46] Major bridges constructed in the 2000s include Syed Nazrul Islam Bridge over Meghna River in 2002, Lalon Shah Bridge over Padma River in 2004, Khan Jahan Ali Bridge over Rupsha River in 2005 and Mukterpur Bridge over Dhaleshwari River in 2008 (see List of bridges in Bangladesh).

Inaugural of Maitree Express train of the Bangladesh Railway on April 14, 2008, at Dhaka Cantonment.

The opening of Bangabandhu Jamuna Bridge in 1998 opened up the scope for expanding the railways, especially for connecting the Bhuapur end of the bridge with Dhaka via tangail. This required a connectivity between Broad-gauge (BG) lines in the west of Jamuna to the Metre-gauge (MG) line in the east. Most part of the construction works of this km long section was completed by 2001. On 14 August 2003, direct BB train communication between East zone (Joydevpur) and West Zone (Rajshahi) was started. In 2008, direct passenger train “Maitree Express” between Dhaka and Kolkata was established. From 14 April 2009, BG Trains started coming to Dhaka directly after Dhaka-Joydevpur section was converted into dual gauge.[47]

With 3,800 kilometers of navigable rivers during the dry season and 6,000 kilometers during the monsoon season, the waterway network in Bangladesh remained an important part of the transport network. As of 2005, inland water transport was accounting for 8% of the passenger transport and 16% of the freight transport across all forms of ground transport in Bangladesh.[48]

With multiple private sector carriers in operation along with the national carrier Biman, air transport sector finally started to take off in this decade. As of 1999, there were 5,900 registered carrier departures worldwide which increased to 16,399 by 2009. During the same period number of passenger carried increased from 1.22 million to about 1.41 million per annum.[33]

In 2000 BTTB went into Global Telecom Service (GTS) Telex Exchange venture with British Teleco. The next year Telecommunication Act was enacted, to establish Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). In 2002 the Government issued ICT Policy. From earlier decade 3 mobile operators, namely Citycell, GrameenPhone and Aktel were in operation in Bangladesh. in 2004, BTTB owned Teletalk cellular mobile launched. Next year, Egypt-based Orascom acquired Sheba Telecom and launched Banglalink.[49]

In the beginning of the decade there were 491,303 fixed telephone line subscription in the country - which increased to 1,234,895 by the end signifying 0.82 lines per 100 people. However, there was rapid growth in mobile cellular subscriptions in this decade. By 2009 there were 51,359,315 mobile subscriptions signifying 34.14 lines per 100 people.[33]

In 2000 per capital electric power consumption was 101.5 kWh, which increased to 219.2 kWh by 2009. During the same period per capita energy usage increased from 138.8 kg of oil equivalent to 187.3 kg and fossil fuel energy consumption increased from 57.9% to 69.0% of total.

In the year 2000, the electricity produced in the country was coming from: hydroelectric sources: 4.7%, natural gas sources: 88.8%, oil sources: 6.5% and coal sources: 0.0%. By 2009 the distribution changed to hydroelectric sources: 1.1%, natural gas sources: 91.6%, oil sources: 4.3% and coal sources: 2.9%.[33]

As of 2008, in addition to the money and capital markets, the financial sector of Bangladesh included a number of insurance, pensions, and microfinance institutions. However, the sector was dominated by the banking industry, which consisted of 4 state-owned commercial banks (SCBs), 5 state-owned specialized banks, 30 domestic private commercial banks (PCBs), 9 foreign commercial banks, and 29 non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) under the supervision of Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country. In the insurance sub-sector, 21 companies provided general insurance while 6 other provided life insurance; but most of the assets in the sector was commanded by the two large, state-owned companies— the Sadharan Bima Corporation for general insurance and the Jiban Bima Corporation for life insurance.[50]

In order to reinforce the Government's ongoing financial sector reform programs from earlier decade (see here), Bangladesh bank administered the World Bank’s Financial Institutions Development Project from 2000 to 2006, which, according to Asian Development Bank, enabled "substantial progress towards sustainable financing of private sector initiatives to accelerate industrial growth in the country".[50]

There were developments in the Capital Market as well. In the beginning of the decade, shares and debentures of 442 companies were traded in the equity market (258 in Dhaka Stock Exchange and 184 in Chittagong Stock Exchange). The listing and trading of debt securities were minimum. The market capitalisation on 30 June 2000 in the two stock exchanges was Tk 80.86 billion and Tk 53.12 billion, equivalent to about $1.62 billion and $1.06 billion respectively.[51] The establishment and incorporation of the Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd (CDBL) as a public limited company in August 2000 and the incorporation of the Central Depository System (CDS) as an independent company in January 2004 helped increase operational efficiency of the stock markets. From 2007 onwards, in the aftermath of the largest IPO at the time, that of Grameenphone Ltd., the market began to appreciate culminating in a significant bubble in 2010. In 2010 alone, the DSE was the second-highest performing market globally, with the general index, DGEN, posting a 92 per cent year-on-year return. However the bubble was short-lived, as the market began to slow from December 8, 2010, beginning a protracted phase of contraction.[52]

In this decade, the focus of Bangladesh education policy at school level switched from “quantity” to “quality”. Reforms were implemented in school managing committee (SMC), retirement and service benefit of non-government teachers, teacher training, information technology and computer education, secondary curriculum, school-based assessment system (SBA) and English language teaching. In different phases the amount of public sector contribution towards salary subvention to non- government educational institutions at secondary and higher secondary level was increased to 90% in 2001. [53]

The coverage of primary education system significantly improved in this decade. As of 2006, number of primary-school-age children outside school came down to approximately 634 thousand. However, number of teachers per 1,000 primary student remained a bismal 2.4.[54] Based on World Bank data,[33] in 2000, there were 10.33 million secondary school students (including higher secondary) in the country, which grew to 10.91 million by the end of the decade. Secondary school enrollment rate ranged between 48.0% to 48.4% during the same period. Over these years ratio of female students in secondary education changed from 49.9% to 51.6%; while, number of teachers for these students grew from 269 to 387 thousand.

In this decade the secondary and higher secondary education administration for the country, used to be managed by 7 general education boards, namely Dhaka, Rajshahi, Comilla, Jessore, Chittagong, Barisal and Sylhet; a Technical Education Board and a Madrasah Education Board.[55]

The tertiary education used to be managed under University Grants Commission, the apex body of all the affiliated public, private and international universities of Bangladesh, while the colleges providing tertiary education operated under the authority of National University. Number of general purpose public universities increased from six (DU, RU, CU, JU, IU and newly opened KU) in the beginning of the decade to eleven by the end with the addition of JnU, JKKNIU, CoU, BRU and BUP. BUET used to be the only university for Engineering education; but in 2003, four other institutes of technology were upgraded to universities. During the decade, number of agricultural universities in the public sector increased from two to five and one more science and technology university was added to existing three. BSMMU continued to serve as the university overseeing post graduate medical education in the country. Asian University for Women was established in Chittagong in 2008 as the second International University in the country after IUT. Number of private universities continued to grow rapidly throughout the decade. By the end of 2000s there were at least 55 registered private universities, but not all of them were recognized for their quality. However, some of the older private universities expanded and moved to larger campus in this decade.

The headquarters of Ekushey Television, Kawran Bazar, Dhaka.

In the 1990s the country saw explosive growth in the number of newspapers in publication. The trend continued in the following decade. Jugantar and Samakal were the two notable additions to the landscape of daily newspapers in the 2000s. Moreover, country's first online news outlet, bdnews24.com, started its operation in 2005 which was a transformative change for the print media of the country.[56] Earlier online Bangladeshi newspapers were merely a static copy of the printed version, but bdnews24.com and later prothom-alo.com started giving realtime news updates on their site - which revolutionalized dissemination of information in Bangladesh.[56]

Although BTV launched BTV World in 2016[57] it faced fierce competition from private TV Channels. One notable development in 2000 was the launch of the country's first private terrestrial TV channel - Ekushey TV (ETV), which covered half the country's population and "turned out to be the most popular channel offering brisk, highly professional, and path-breaking programmes".[58] However, in 2002 the BNP-led Government shutdown ETV, on the ground of technical reasons, but the conventional wisdom was that the channel was being punished for its partisan role.[56] In the post ETV era, many new private TV channels mushroomed and competed with older channels to take a share of audiences. NTV, RTV, Banglavision, Boishakhi TV and Desh TV were among the new channels which started their journey in this period.

While Television viewership persistently increased from 31% in 1995 to 42% in 1998 and 61% in 2002; the number of people with radio exposure decreased from 42% to 24.1% from 1998 to 2002.[59] The rapid increase in availability of television from the late 1990s and the subsequent years was the major reason behind the fall of radio listenership. Although private TV channels were already available, the radio network was still controlled by state-owned Bangladesh Betar in this decade.