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Economic Structure of Bangladesh and Thailand
For some people, development is a vision of progressive change. For others, it is seen as understanding processes of change in history and today. For most, development is viewed as a deliberate effort at promoting ‘progress’. Thailand and Bangladesh are examples of countries that see development as a way of promoting ‘progress’ and as a tool for achieving social, economical, and political growth. Thailand, located in Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing economies in today’s world whereas Bangladesh, located in Southern Asia, has been struggling for years to conduct development that aims to satisfy the social, economical, and political well being of the nation. The real question needs to be addressed. Why has Thailand’s economy grown at a faster pace than Bangladesh? This paper gives answers to this question by analyzing the main economic sectors; agricultural and manufacturing of Bangladesh which account for 21 and 16 percent of its GDP respectively. It examines how the agricultural and manufacturing approaches limits Bangladesh economic growth and it focuses on Thailand’s shift from an agrarian economy to a highly industrialized economy whereby high levels of growth are taking place.
“The 1987 World Development Report classified Bangladesh as a country with a “strongly inward orientation” and as having followed import substitution policies between 1963 to 1985”(Chowdhury Khan, 2007, p.31). In 1985 it had an external public debt, which amounted to 37% of its GDP. For over 22 years, Bangladesh was stabilized and had to undergo structural adjustments. Some of the conditionalities, also known as the Washington Consensus imposed on Bangladesh were:
• Cutting social expenditure
• Devaluation of currencies
• Trade liberalization
• Removing price controls and State subsidies

By the end of the 1980s, the government, having negotiated with international...