At a press conference in Dhaka, the association leaders also urged the government to increase import duty on some finished plastic products from the existing five per cent as a measure to protect the Tk 2,000 crore-strong plastic industry of the country.

Intermediate products are mainly non-formed plastic which is turned into items such as clothes hangers, labels and furniture.

In FY 2005-2006, the plastic industry exported products worth Tk 1,443 crore. This included Tk 381 crore worth of direct exports and Tk 1,062 of indirect exports for example, plastic products, such as buttons or hangers, were included in garment sales.

"Though we are doing very well in the plastic sector we still have to import the intermediate products and then add value to them, but the government imposes a 25 per cent import duty on intermediate products when import duty on some finished plastic products is only five per cent," said Jasim Uddin, president of BPGMEA, describing the duty structure.

"This is why local products are failing to compete with imported plastic products in the domestic market," he said, adding that the plastic industry is now the third or fourth largest export earner for the country if both direct and indirect exports are counted. Extended government support would further boost this position, he opined.

Attributing the success of the industry to private initiatives, he said proper government support could double or triple the sector's growth.

The growth of a country's plastic industry normally shadows that of other industries as most sectors such as telecom, automobile, light engineering, textile and garments and food require plastic and plastic accessories or plastic packaging.

Among the export products developed in Bangladesh are garment accessories, toys, toothbrushes, ballpoint pens, pharmaceutical packages and plastic wrapping for food items.

The association also ruled out allegations that duty free bonded warehouses had been misused.

"The export of plastic products is three times higher than the import of plastic materials using the bonded facility. If we were feeding the local market with duty free imports then it would not have been possible to increase exports by this rate," the BPGMEA president said.