Dhaka, July 8 -- Bangladesh is at a landmark in the nation's life-one of jubilation and an invitation to strategic contemplation. Bangladesh. With its anticipated graduation from the United Nations' List of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by 2026, the nation is poised to turn a new page in its development history. The graduation is a strong indication of Bangladesh's progress in achieving phenomenal success in poverty reduction, improvements in health and education, increased per capita income, and macroeconomic stability.

But with this latter benchmark comes also a set of structural and economic problems. Graduation means the end of some of the world's special treatment-above all, access to the world's markets duty-free and concessiona...