World Cuisine

Hilsa

Information

Bangladesh means ‘Country of Bengal’ in Bengali, the country’s official language. It refers to the geographical region that covers the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and West Bengal, which is one of India’s northeastern states. This densely-populated country of over 160 million people, with 98% of them being ethnic Bengalis, is bordered on sides by India except in the southeast where it borders Burma (Myanmar). Bangladesh was once East Pakistan, but after a bloody war, seceded from Pakistan and became an independent country in 1972. Today, this secular, democratic republic has the third largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan, and ranks among the top 10 most populous countries in the world. Poverty is widespread and has always been a problem for the country but Goldman Sachs Investment Bank has touted Bangladesh as being on its way to becoming one of the world’s largest economies in the 21st century. This promising outlook for future growth is based on its macroeconomic stability, political maturity and openness of trade and investment policies. That is certainly a very possible reality for Bangladesh, a country whose people refuse to give up after being hit and ravaged by many natural disasters over the years – their amazing resiliency means they get right back up on their feet and get on with life, as industrious and hardworking as they have always been. Read the rest of this entry »