Graduation to the developing country status is a double-edged sword: While this is a gain in itself and a matter of pride for the people of Bangladesh, it will lead to the loss of a number of significant facilities that the country enjoyed during the least developed country status. After the graduation, Bangladesh will have to face a number of fresh challenges in its economic relations with other countries and continue developing sustainably to prove its mettle. However, no challenge is going to get us cowed into vacillation and backtracking from our determination to go ahead confidently. Challenges will open before us the gate to new prospects and new possibilities.

As a least developed country, Bangladesh enjoyed preferential market facilities like duty-free and quota-free access of its commodities, especially readymade garments to developed country markets under the Generalised System of Preferences. The country also enjoyed grant and soft loan facilities in the form of concessional funding for development. Following the graduation, the country is going to lose many such facilities with their negative impact on our national economy, resulting in significant reduction of export earnings, at least at the initial stages of the developing country status. Obviously this will act as a retarding factor in our economic growth.