How the agreement with South Korea be leveraged for economic transformation

The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with South Korea presents a major opportunity for Bangladesh. However, the benefits of this opportunity will not come automatically. Bangladesh must now transform market advantages into exports, investments into technology and skills, and economic partnerships into production capacity. If this can be achieved, CEPA could become a key foundation for economic transformation. Fahmida Khatun has written on the matter. Bangladesh and South Korea signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (SEPA) on 4 August 2026.

This agreement was finalised after nearly a year of five rounds of formal discussions and several meetings. This timing is particularly significant for Bangladesh because, in November 2026, the country is scheduled to graduate from the list of Least Developed Countries (LDC). Consequently, the nature of Bangladesh's trade relationships will change in the upcoming days. So far, as an LDC, Bangladesh has received duty-free or preferential access to the markets of developed and some developing countries unilaterally. After LDC graduation, some of these benefits will no longer be available as before. Therefore,…