Introduction

In 2000, Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, MP during the end of her first term (1996–2001), conceived a long-term development agenda for Bangladesh called “Vision 2021”. We organized an international conference on 14 April 2001 supported by the University of Hull, UK; Dhaka University, Bangladesh; and Griffith University, Australia, covering the most important development goals of “Vision 2021” with a view to recommend to the future Governments of Bangladesh a set of development targets for the nation achieved by 2021. Out of this conference proceedings, a volume was published in 2003 (Hossain et al. 2003). The volume was reviewed in several outlets at home and abroad including the prestigious Journal of International Development based in the United Kingdom in 2005. The “Vision 2021” agenda among others addresses the following development issues: Is Bangladesh likely to be free from poverty by 2021, the nation's golden jubilee of independence? Is Bangladesh likely to become middle-level industrialized nation by 2021? What changes need to occur and what institutions need to be in place to achieve the goals of the “Vision 2021”? Time has arrived in 2018 to examine the reality of the “Vision 2021”. The present volume has examined the realities in a conference, once again, held in Dhaka entitled, “Pathways to a Sustainable Economy: Vision 2041 Agenda for Bangladesh” on 30 October 2018. Once again, Sheikh Hasina, during her third term as PM, put forward the “Vision 2041” with a view to investigate the overall economic development of the nation against the backdrop of achievements and realities of “Vision 2021” over the last two decades. This monograph is one of the three that has been designed out of the international conference held over three days in Dhaka in 2018.