BGMEA signs deal with Daily Star to devise ways to boost exports

Garment makers yesterday reiterated their confidence that the target to hit $50 billion exports by 2021 is achievable if political stability, infrastructure and policy support are in place.

“We would be able to export more than $27 billion worth of garments at the end of this year. We need to increase shipment by another $23 billion in the next five years to reach the target of $50 billion,” said Siddiqur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

“The target is achievable as Bangladesh is getting more export orders, which are being shifted to the country from China, the largest apparel exporter globally,” Rahman said at an event for signing a memorandum of understanding with The Daily Star at the BGMEA office in Dhaka. Under the deal, a roundtable will be organised at The Daily Star Centre on January 23 to discuss the prospects and challenges of the garment sector to help it reach the $50-billion export target.

Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, and Rahman of BGMEA signed the MoU.

“Our export market is expanding every year,” Rahman said. China exports garments of more than $180 billion a year, but it is now losing its market share as its entrepreneurs are getting involved in other sectors due to high production cost and a shortage of skilled workers in the apparel industry, he said.

China's domestic garment market is worth nearly $400 billion, he said. “Our export to China is also increasing as we are competitive in this market,” Rahman said.

Foreign investment has reached the saturation point in Vietnam, one of the major competitors of Bangladesh in the global apparel business, he said.

“Garment business of other rivals such as Cambodia and India is also not so good,” Rahman said, adding that Myanmar will need time to emerge as a competitor.

BGMEA in an apparel summit in Dhaka in December 2014 decided to hit the $50-billion export target by 2021, when Bangladesh will celebrate its 50th anniversary of independence.

Faruque Hassan, vice-president of BGMEA, said although the global economy has been going through a rough patch, the apparel market is expanding. Bangladesh's share in the global garment business is 5.80 percent.

“Increasing exports by an additional $24 billion in the next six years is a big challenge. Still it is possible if we have political stability,” Hassan said.

Mahfuz Anam said the target can be achieved with adequate supply of energy, improved infrastructure, low lending rates, and policy support. He urged media outlets to extensively cover garment-related issues so that the barriers to business are removed.

“The entrepreneurs in the garment sector have been playing a leadership role and other sectors are following them. The engine of economic growth is the private sector. This is why The Daily Star has come forward to cooperate with the sector,” Anam said.