Continued progress in RMG sector ensured: Adviser

The government has taken necessary steps for continued progress in the country's garment sector, said Textiles and Jute Adviser Mohammed Anwarul Iqbal.
He said this at a daylong seminar, titled “New Vision and Development of National Institute of Textile Training, Research and Design (NITTRAD): Presentation of Assessment Reports”, at a city hotel Thursday.
The Ministry of Textiles and Jute organized the seminar, in cooperation with Bangladesh Quality Support Programme (BQSP) of European Union (EU) and United Nations Industrial Development Organizations (UNIDO), aiming to improve the productivity and quality of textiles and RMG products so that the textiles and RMG sector could survive the competition in global and domestic markets.
The Adviser said country's garment sector has now become a 4-billion-dollar foreign exchange earner, enjoying the status of one of the largest garment and T-shirt exporters to the EU and one of the largest apparel exporters to the USA.
“With MFA being phased out since 2005, the manufacturers and exporters of RMG in Bangladesh are now competing within a larger context on the global apparel market,” he told the seminar.
“Now the country has a very liberal investment climate. It takes, for instance, just three days for a foreign investment registration and there is no discrimination between foreign and local private investors. Hundred percent foreign investment, as well as, joint Ventures with local partners are allowed here,” Iqbal said.
He hoped that the present rate of development in the overall textile sector of the country will continue and the country's foreign currency earning from RMG export would cross 5 billion US dollars before 2010.
Textiles and Jute Secretary Abdur Rashid Sarker presided over the opening session of the seminar.
At the seminar, an agreement was signed between Marie Louise Klotz, dean of the Department of Textile and Clothing of Niederrhein University, and Shamsul Alam, principal of NITTRAD. As per the deal, the department will help upgrade the education and training facilities of NITTRAD.