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THE current volume continues the tradition of undertaking an annual review and analysis of the key changes, important developments and strategic choices before the Bangladesh economy which was initiated by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in 1995 under its pioneering initiative titled Independent Review of Bangladesh's Development (IRBD). The present IRBD 2002 volume, the seventh to be brought out under the CPD's IRBD initiative, will provide the readership with an opportunity to understand and asses the dynamics of the major macro-economic variables and the developments in key sectors of the Bangladesh economy in recent years, and will also enable readers to gain in-depth insights into some of the key emerging issues which have long term strategic significance for the country. The issues raised and dealt with in the various chapters of the IRBD 2002 volume are presented in two parts. The Primary focus of Part A titled Bangladesh's,' Macroeconomic performance in FY 2002 is to examine the performance of the key sectors of the country's economy in fiscal year 2002. The analysis here concentrates on major trends and changes in key macro economic indicators such as GDP growth rates, Balance of Payments situation, Public Sector Expenditure Patterns, Aid Utilisation, External Sector Performance, the Exchange Rate and Food situation. The discussion focuses on the policies that impacted on the dynamics of these variables, the underlying factors which informed the direction of these changes, and the emerging challenges in the relevant sectors and areas which need to be addressed by the policy makers of the country.

Part B of the current volume is titled Dynamics of the Labour Market in Bangladesh. The choice of this issue for the thematic part of IRDB 2002 is informed by the critical relevance and importance of employment and labour market related issues for the future development of Bangladesh. The chapters in this part of the IRBD concentrate on the political economy of labour markets in Bangladesh, and its linkage with poverty alleviation, emerging employment opportunities and opportunities for export of labour services from Bangladesh. The analysis in this section presents, perhaps for the first time, an extensive use of the recently published Labour Force Survey (LFS 2001). Accordingly, it is hoped that the discussion here will be of practical use to policy makers and also of interest to sector specialists and development practitioners. Taking cognisance of the critical relevance of the ongoing process of globalisation for labour market related issues, this section also looks at the experience of some of the other countries in, the context of changing labour demand and its implications in terms of livelihood strategies of the poor, their options and choices. This section also focuses on some of the emerging trends in the global market which are likely to have important- policy significance for the increasingly globalising economy of Bangladesh. It is hoped that policy makers, development organisations, academics and students as well as general readers interested in the current state of the Bangladesh economy and its future directions, options and strategies will stand to benefit from the information and analysis presented in this volume which has been prepared by a team of eminent Bangladeshi experts working in CPD and other reputed institutions both in Bangladesh and abroad.