Garment exports to China which mounted during last financial year are seen to grow at a higher speed this fiscal, with China, the world's leading apparel supplier granting duty-free access to Bangladesh since July, 2010.
China lately has started focusing towards producing hi-value apparels and accessories. Core garment producing units are either upgrading machineries or closing down, mainly due to dearth of cheap labour availability coupled with mounting production costs and workers strife, exporters said.
Preliminary data released by the state-owned Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) reveals that, Bangladesh exported knitwear products worth $23.5 to China during 2009-10, depicting a massive hike of 148 percent in the 12 month period ending June 30, 2010.
China now grants duty-free access to 4,762 product categories from Bangladesh, and by December 31, 2010, around 60 percent of the products would benefit from such duty-free treatment.
However, Bangladesh in trying to penetrate the world's most populated country will have to encounter competition from other countries.
This is because China, alongside Bangladesh, has granted zero-tariff treatment even to Afghanistan, Nepal, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Madagascar, Congo, Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique, Benin, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and four other countries of the world.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India