Bangladesh's economy: surrounded by deadly threats

Purpose - This paper aims to examine Bangladesh's overall economy with special focus on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis, choosing right foreign direct investment (FDI) strategy, remittance inflow, lessons from South East Asian nations, risk factors and aftermath. Design/methodology/approach - Phenomenological research has raised awareness and increased insight into Bangladesh's overall strength, weakness, opportunity and threat in terms of her current position in world economy. The approach is based on observation of the business environment, online research, a close watch on Bangladesh's economy, analysis of newspapers, books, brainstorming with co‐researchers for five years and 30 years of living and working experience in developing countries. Findings - The research has found that Bangladesh is going to encounter series of economic hurdles in near future. A SWOT analysis of Bangladesh has uncovered her overall strength, weakness, opportunity and threat in terms of her current position in world economy. Despite some strengths and opportunities, Bangladesh has lots of weaknesses and threats that could seriously undermine nation's development process at any time. A holistic and concerted effort is much sought after to address those problems while capitalising on strengths and opportunities. Side by side, Bangladesh should try her level best to attract quality FDI. However, remittance inflow plays very crucial role in Bangladesh's economy. But deplorably, since it is almost impossible to follow the successful model of South East Asian nations, Bangladesh does not have any sure success formula of any country in hand to follow. In fact, many less successful countries will have to struggle for long uncertain period. And sadly, Bangladesh falls into that category indeed. In fact, Bangladesh's economy has been on an inherently unstable path that can only end in tears. But remittance inflow will act as lifeblood for Bangladesh's economy and it will slow down the total apocalyptic process indeed. However, considering the totality, Bangladesh must have to face several critical challenges at once even before embarking on the track of vision 2020! Truly, nightmare is just on! Originality/value - This paper offers a holistic view that would guide a reader to identify key challenges of a typical least developed country.