Bangladesh 2017

In 2017 Bangladesh's political landscape was dominated by the Rohingya crisis, deflagrated at the end of August in Myanmar, causing 600,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh.This article provides a short historical background of the Rohingya issue to prove that these people, although of Bengali descent, have been living in Myanmar for centuries.The reasons why, after having been fully integrated in Burma's pre-colonial society, they are at present being dismissed as «strangers» or «Bengalis» by the Myanmar authorities are analysed.In spite of the economic impact of the Rohingya crisis on a poor country like Bangladesh, in 2017 its economy continued to flourish, the GDP rate of growth being about 7%.This positive result was largely due to the political stability ensured by the administration, although not always with orthodox systems.Also both Chinese and Indian direct investments contributed to Bangladesh's economic growth.However, in the year under review, Bangladesh appeared to gradually move closer to China, attracted by the possibility of being included in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Geography · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Cambodian History and Society · International Law and Human Rights