Students of global economy are familiar with specific terms defining the economic powers that influence trade and industry beyond their borders. The Asian Tigers, for example, are the four highly-developed countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) that account for a good percentage of market exports around the planet. Whether these nations will remain on top is up for debate, but as implied by Goldman Sachs those included in the Next Eleven group may prove competitive in the future. One such country is Bangladesh.

Your first thought of Bangladesh might be of the Third World. In the 1970s the country – formerly known as East Pakistan – suffered the ravages of civil war and extreme weather conditions. The plight of her people moved musicians George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to organize a benefit concert to raise funds for relief – the first such charitable event, years before Live Aid. Today, while Bangladesh maintains its rank among nations with high poverty levels, it is slowly developing an economy that has shown impressive growth over the years.

One might think, given the assumed paucity of natural resources and industry in the country, that Bangladesh doesn’t offer much in the way of goods to export. Quite the contrary, though this neighbor to India doesn’t enjoy the same GNP level of the United States or nearby Asian nations, Bangladesh exported in 2009 more than $18 billion worth of supplies annually, a significant growth from $5 billion seven years prior. In proving its place among the Next Eleven, Bangladesh has made quite a mark in the textile export industry. Apparel exports, the nation’s top industry, surpassed that of India for the first time in 2009, accounting for one-eighth of the country’s overall export product. Hides used for clothing and other products are a popular product for trade, and are usually included in the totals for textile and apparel exports.

Bangladesh is generally a poor country which has registered some positive economic growth points and a fall in poverty rate. A country with over 60 percent of the population below the poverty line, about 70 percent of tobacco used in Bangladesh is smoked as consumed as cigarettes or bidis. 20 percent of tobacco is chewed and the rest is used as hookas, pipes, cigars or snuff. Smoking cessation policies driven by the government and non-profit organizations began in the 80s. The efforts have been around informing the general public about the effects of cigarette smoking. Researchers note that health warnings on cigarette packages are very small and weak. With half of the population being illiterate much of these messages are lost.

To add to the problem of smoking cessation interventions in Bangladesh, the national radio and television stations stopped broadcasting advertisements for tobacco products in 1997. Perhaps broadcast warnings would be more effective in a country with high illiteracy rates. Statistically up to 10.5 million people are though to be nicotine addicts in Bangladesh. Much of the smoking is found in the low income bracket of society were the opportunity cost of smoking is particularly significant. It has been established through surveys that male smokers spent enough per day in 1997 to purchase enough rice to provide an additional 1402 calories for the family. The amount of money spent by women smokers could purchase about 770 calories.

The real prices of cigarettes in Bangladesh have fallen over the last ten years driving a new round of tobacco cigarette demand. This raise in demand is also as a result of a general raise in income making more people have access to cigarettes. Average daily expenditure on tobacco products according to research has increased between 1995 and 1997. Experts in Bangladesh believe that an increase in the price of tobacco products on an annual basis by some 5% will likely reduce the number of people who smoke. In fact it has been shown that taxes are an effective way of curbing smoking especially amongst the low income smokers. The cost of cigarettes is the second most popular reason for quitting smoking after the fear of the dangers of smoking.

There is no doubt that tobacco control in Bangladesh will need stronger and stringent action. Smoking in public places should be totally banned and advertising of tobacco products outlawed. The challenge of interventions is to increase access to information to plainly educate a vastly illiterate society of the dangers of smoking and the benefits of quitting smoking. There is need to highlight the positive side of stopping smoking and to over people the help to achieve total freedom from addiction if any smoking cessation program should succeed.