Dhaka, Nov. 8 -- Bangladesh pursues over two-dozen plans to secure duty-free market access to major trade-partner countries for effective graduation from least-developed country (LDC) status, sources say.

The ministry of commerce (MoC) has sketched out the sweeping, time-bound action plan under Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework.

This comprehensive framework is designed to execute a Smooth Transition Strategy (STS) on graduation.

They say the detailed plan outlines aggressive diplomatic- and trade- negotiation strategies targeting the European Union, the United Kingdom, and key Asian partners like China, Japan and India.

The core of the strategy focuses immediate preservation of preferential access to the European Union (EU) an...