Clothing exports tipped to double next year

03 May '11

2 min read

With a considerable rise in earnings from export of readymade garment's (RMG), it is evident that the prospects of Bangladeshi RMG exports have actually got better.

During the eight months of the 2010-11 fiscal that concluded in March 2011, country's garment exports rose by 40 percent to $14 billion, over corresponding period last year.

Practical estimates project positive times for the Bangladeshi RMG industry, while according to one such estimate, the overall RMG earnings for the next fiscal are projected to grow almost two fold over current fiscal's total estimated earnings to US $35 billion,.

Positive developments like, a one-step generalised system of preference (GSP) for exporting RMG items to the European Union (EU) nations and a two-stage GSP for exporting RMG items to Japan, have formed the basis for such growth.

Further, the rise in country's RMG exports to newly emerging large markets, alongside the EU, Canada and the USA, has also pushed the actual growth.

Also, the EU has changed its rules of origin (RoO), to grant duty-free access to clothing and other finished products produced in the least developed nations to the EU markets, subject to that, these products do not use more than 70 percent of imported raw materials.

This along with soaring cost of labour in other competing nations has boosted Bangladesh's RMG exports.

Bangladesh till now has managed to meet this rising demand through optimum capacity utilisation of the already existing garment firms.

But now, in order to cash in on the soaring demand for RMG items from the conventional as well as new emerging markets, it would require to either enhance its existing capacity, or to establish new facilities, to support higher production.

However, the country needs to expand is production and supply capacity simultaneously in a positive framework of competitiveness, so as to strike a balance between increased demand-supply and improved capacity.

Any shortfall in adequately meeting the demand is likely to lead the Bangladeshi RMG industry to lose the goodwill and buyer's interest, who may turn their back on Bangladesh and hunt for other country suppliers.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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