The volume brings together a collection of essays written by colleagues, friends and students as a tribute to professor Mosharaff Hossain. In addition to personal tributes, the contributions cover issue in agriculture and the rural economy and development in general which were close to the heart of Mosharaff Hossain.

The monograph encapsulates the ideas of a profound and deeply concerned social thinker. He points to the dynamism of the country’s private sector and the capabilities of its workforce. He believes that promoting Bangladesh to an MIC is a pragmatic and constructive way of improving the country’s divisive political environment. The two major parties can have a common rallying banner adopting this as a “National Goal” with commitment towards human development, creative use of expatriates, and reforming regulatory processes.

THIS BOOK was written as a result of repeated requests from practitioners and donor agencies in the micro finance field. It draws on the author's research and thirteen years of practical experience in Bangladesh, Philippines and East Africa, and on the large and growing micro finance literature.

The book includes contributions on a wide variety of economic development topics from a distinguished panel of contributors. The authors are based in different parts of the world and bring their varied expertise to their research. The reader will appreciate the diversity of background and expertise of the contributors that has produced an extraordinary healthy mix of perspectives, an important strength of this collection.

Microcredit offers a mechanism for providing collateral free credit to assetless household. Bangladesh and a number of developing countries have evolved their own genre of microfinance.

Microfinance is now globally recognized as a powerful intervention for alleviating poverty. This innovative development approach has inspired numerous research works around the world.

The present volume is a compilation of articles originally published at various times in the Journal of Bangladesh Studies. The selection was predicated on two main criteria: their immediate relevance to the Bangladesh economy and the reputation of the authors who have a track record of publications in international journals and have influenced the thinking of others through their insightful writing. The book covers a gamut of important areas that concern economists and have the potential to shape economic thinking in Bangladesh.

The present volume on Emerging Issues in Bangladesh Economy: A Review of Bangladesh's Development 2005-06, is the tenth publication under the pioneering initiative of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) titled Independent Review of Bangladesh's Development (IRBD). Over the past years, since 1995, the IRBDs, an annual publication of the CPD, have been able to establish a tradition of high scholarship and a credible civil society perspective on key issues of developmental concern and interest in Bangladesh. IRBD 2005-06 has identified fourteen strategic issues which are likely to have important medium term implications on how Bangladesh develops over the coming years. The increasingly globally integrated economy of Bangladesh needs policies that will foster and promote strengthened participation of Bangladesh's enterprises and entrepreneurs in the domestic, regional and global markets.

Some of the micro-borrowers in Bangladesh have benefited in certain respects. A lot of them are struggling under the stringent terms of credit including high cost of borrowing and a weekly repayment schedule starting a week after a credit is taken. Many have gone further into indebtedness and face a bleak future.

Economic Analyses of Contemporary Issues in Bangladesh is a collection of studies by economists and other social scientists, working mostly on economic and social policies and issues in Bangladesh. This compilation of analytically well-grounded studies by established researchers covers a variety of topics such as economic growth patterns, regional convergence of per-capita income, micro-credits, natural resource management, household choice of water and sanitation facilities, capital markets, exchange rate policy, corruption, and transfer pricing by foreign investors. The authors have applied different analytical techniques and methodologies and have drawn conclusions and policy implications based on empirical findings.