boats in Bangladesh
EU-Bangladesh relations date back to 1973 and have evolved over the years, reaching a new level of partnership under the Co-operation Agreement in 2001 
. This agreement considerably broadened the scope of co-operation, extending to trade and economic development, human rights, good governance and the environment.
The Country Strategy Paper for Bangladesh [378 KB] 
covers the period 2007 to 2013. It is drafted against the backdrop of the following key challenges for Bangladesh:
a continued struggle in addressing the structural problems of poverty and to achieve the MDGs by the target date of 2015
good governance problems that affect the efficient and effective delivery of basic public services to the poor
the need to diversify the industrial base and to improve the enabling environment for business.
This strategy is grounded in the Government of Bangladesh’s own response strategy to these challenges contained in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper .
