Bangladesh, India complement, not compete in garment sector export: BGMEA

Dhaka: Bangladesh and India do not compete with each other in the international market for export in the garment sector but complement each other, said Faruque Hassan, President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
Addressing media in Dhaka on Sunday, to announce the holding of the first ever branding event for apparel sector named ‘Made in Bangladesh Week’ between November 12-18, Faruque Hassan said exports from Bangladesh to other countries also boosts export from India as many of the inputs are sourced from India.
Faruque Hassan said the export of Ready-Made Garments (RMG) showed almost 99 percent growth in the first two months of the current financial year in July and August. He said the RMG sector export to India is likely to cross USD 1 billion in the current financial year compared to USD 764 million last year. The BGMEA President said it is a win-win situation for both the countries as they cooperate in design development and value addition. He announced that BGMEA will soon take up events to promote ‘Brand Bangladesh’ for the apparel sector in India.
Faruque Hassan announced that during the ‘Made in Bangladesh Week’ next month, the apparel Industry of the country will showcase the groundbreaking innovations and compliance and sustainable developments of the RMG sector in the world market. The week-long event will showcase 17 physical events comprising summits, expositions, Photo-exhibition, conferences, fashion innovation among other events. The event is planned to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on November 13.
Outlining the challenges for the RMG sector post 2026 when Bangladesh graduates from the LDC status, Faruque Hassan said it has initiated dialogues with major buyers like the European Union, Australia, UK and others to continue the preferential treatment for Bangladesh RMG products beyond 2026. Also, Bangladesh is diversifying its export basket into emerging markets whose share in total RMG sector export has gone up from 6.8 percent in 2009 to over 17 percent in the current financial year.
Bangladesh has also been working to diversify from natural yarns to synthetic yarns and its product basket from basic 5 RMG products which constitutes 82 percent of all its exports to more fashion-oriented products. Bangladesh is also exploring the possibility of online sale of RMG products internationally in line with similar other ventures in the world. BGMEA President said Bangladesh is confident to achieve the export goal of USD 100 billion by the year 2030.
The Ready-Made Garment export from Bangladesh was USD 42.6 billion in the year 2021-22. The exports from the RMG and textile sector contribute over 87 percent of the total exports from Bangladesh. Close to 10 million families are employed directly or indirectly in the RMG sector out of which 60 per cent are women. (By Mir Afroz Zaman-UNI)