Although it is true that a liberal trade and investment policy is essential for attracting higher level of private investment, it is not a sufficient factor. Many developing countries (DCs) and least developed countries (LDCs) which have opened up their economies to a large extent and have in general put in place market friendly policies, but did not succeed in their bid to have significant foreign investment flow. The reason why broad macroeconomic policies, even when these appear to be liberal, do not get translated into favourable micro decisions by entrepreneurs is something that needs to be closely looked into. Policymakers in DCs and LDCs do not give as much attention to these missing links as they generally tend to give to putting the macro-framework right.
Major objectives of this paper are to assess the competitiveness environment in Bangladesh by identifying the key bottlenecks and impediments which constrain proper functioning of the business sector, and also to come up with a set of policy recommendations to help policymakers and stakeholders prioritise the areas for improving economic governance in the country through focused initiative. The paper also attempts to situate Bangladesh in terms of growth and business competitiveness performance in the context of other countries, globally, for the year 2005 as compared to 2004.