The latest figures revealed by the Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) show that Bangladesh registered the highest growth amidst 10 countries in the U.S. apparel imports for September, 2018. The country’s exports surged to 11.8% with 171m Square Meter Equivalent (SME), surpassing Honduras (90m SME), India (81m SME), and El Salvador (65m SME).
Globally, Bangladesh is the second-largest ready-made garment (RMG) exporter, with net annual worth around $28 billion. The RMG Sector houses 41% factories with moderate technologies and 20% using advanced machinery. Touted as a women-driven sector, the male to female worker ratio stands at 39.2:60.8, with a total employment strength of approximately 3.5 million people. While the textile sector is responsible for 83.5% of the country’s exports, it plays a crucial role in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures with 6% contribution. This comes as the country has utilized the impetus received from the government as well as private companies like Beximco Textiles.
The government of Bangladesh has been instrumental in laying a strong foundation for the industry. They collaborated with the International Labor Organization for enhanced protection of factory working environment and inspections were carried out across 3,780 factories under the same. In order to ensure this as a long-term measure, the Department of Inspections of Factories and Establishments (DIFE) was re-structured with a personnel and budget boost.
Beximco Group, headed by Salman F Rahman, has had a tremendous run in terms of textile exports and growth. Beximco Textiles, the textile arm of the group has integrated the government formulated policy changes with available resources making useful utility and output centric changes to their manufacturing. Salman F Rahman is also an advisor the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Time to time, he has taken decisions that gave the textiles sector the necessary boost.
In addition, skilled labor at economical prices has helped such companies achieve their objective of maximized output and reasonable market appeal. As a result, the corresponding earnings across the last decade has helped the private players establish global dominance.
The concoction of all these makes Bangladesh a good sourcing destination for the US and other major importers. As the country continues to grow, the industry players are strengthening their global footprint by meeting the export standards of their core customers.
Riding on the domestic growth and strong private and government initiatives, Bangladesh’s textile industry has registered strong economic precedents and growth markers with growing exports, and improving textile manufacturing. Perhaps a few years down the line, it will not be anomalous for Bangladesh to achieve its aim of $50 billion RMG export earnings by 2021.
Source: https://newswire.net