http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.info/search_index.php?page=detail_news&news_id=43545
Garment exports to hit $25b in 2013
FE Report
Bangladesh’s garment exports will hit US$25 billion by 2013 as buyers are impressed with the country’s quality products and competitive price, despite its rickety infrastructure and growing shortage of skilled manpower, a top industry chief said.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez said the growth would create an additional 1.4 million new jobs, as the country’s over 4000 garment factories have graduated into a world-class standard.
“Our mission is to attain $25 billion export in 2013 and we expect the goal will be achieved although we have lack of skilled man manpower in mid management,” the BGMEA chief told a meeting in the city.
Export earnings from the garment sector soared to $10.7 billion in 2007-8 fiscal year– up over 16 per cent than the previous fiscal-despite the shipment was negative 5.47 percent in the first quarter.
“The growth rate of the industry over the last three years was 64 per cent that makes us confident to set a target of reaching $18 billion by 2010 and $25 billion by 2013,” Parvez said.
“Such an expansion will create jobs for approximately 1.4 million people directly in the Ready made garments industry and will subsequently open up opportunities across the different occupations,” he said.
Currently, the sector, which makes up 10 per cent of the GDP, employs 2.4 million people which is about 40 per cent of the country’s total industrial workforce. Some 85 per cent of the workers are women.
He made the comments while presenting a key-note paper on the Garment and Textile: Its Future and Challenges at a luncheon meeting of Switzerland Bangladesh Business Forum (SBBF).
Elisabeth Bosch Malinen, deputy head of mission of the embassy of Switzerland joined the programme as chief guest.
The BGMEA president said buyers now have confidence in the country’s products and price, but the sector faces multi-prong challenges such as rickety infrastructure, a poor image of Bangladesh and growing shortages of skilled mid-managers.
“Each month 600 students become graduate from our institute but this figure is too small than that of the required manpower,” he said, adding the skill shortages in the industry has now risen to 25 per cent of the total workforce.
He said the industry’s future lies in “two pillars-compliance and eco-friendly environment” and the manufacturers have been striving to narrow the gap between the management and the unions.
The industry also needs uninterrupted supply of gas and power and highways to spur its growth in the near future, he added.
“We will be a true emerging tiger in the Asia and in order to achieve such target we have started to do our homework and sketching the rod map,” he added.
He said this sector has been proven as a stable sector and it now needs a private-public partnership and exclusive economic zones for providing a sustainable an infrastructure for the sector.
