Services sector in Bangladesh is growing day by day. Currently, half of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from the services sector. Economics literature categorises services sector as the third of the three parts of the economy. The primary sector generally covers farming, mining and agriculture business activities -- although in Bangladesh, mining is considered a component of secondary sector that covers manufacturing and business activities for producing tangible products. The third sector is services, also known as tertiary sector producing intangible goods. This sector actually covers the largest portion of the economy.

As the services sector is growing, so the trade in services. According to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) data available in the organisation's World Trade Statistical Review 2016, global exports of the commercial services stood at $4.68 trillion last year. Developing countries accounted for 26 per cent of the total trade in the commercial services.

Trade in commercial services usually covers three modes of services. These are: mode one (cross-border trade), mode two (consumption abroad) and mode three (commercial presence). So, services trade data is incomplete to some extent. Foreign Affiliates Trade in Services (FATS) statistics usually measures the 'commercial presence abroad of service suppliers through affiliates in foreign markets.' So, the picture of mode three is available from FATS statistics which is again closely related to the statistics on foreign direct investment (FDI).

Nevertheless, trade in services, commercial services to be precise, has been increasingly important for the developing and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), including Bangladesh. The country's earnings from export in services stood at $1.68 billion last year which was $1.02 billion in 2007. On the other hand, payments on import of services rose from $2.30 billion in 2006 to $8.4 billion in 2015.  These data in the WTO statistical review do not fully tally with the Balance of Payment (BoP) statistics prepared by the Bangladesh Bank (Table-1). Again, there is no authentic data on FATS in Bangladesh as well as many other LDCs. 

Thus, data deficiency and discrepancy become a major challenge for the developing countries and LDCs in their services trade. Moreover, appropriate policy planning to streamline the export-oriented services sector is another big challenge to tap the growing market of services across the world. 

UNCTAD REVIEW: Against this backdrop, the Bangladesh government asked help from the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).  The UN body released last month a two-part document, named 'Services Policy Review of Bangladesh'.  It analyses five priority segments in services. These are: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and ICT; tourism; accounting and auditing; architecture and engineering; and nursing and midwifery.  

The review has identified 'ICT service has the brightest immediate prospects' in the country. Among the four other professional services, 'best bets for exports are accountants and engineers.' The review stressed on building the domestic supply and delivery of the services of nurses and midwives on a priority basis. 

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