RMG export growth may remain sluggish for global slowdown

The growth of exports in the country's apparel sector is likely to remain sluggish in the current fiscal year (FY), due to the ongoing global slowdown, exporters said on 24th January 2012.

They said the export growth of ready-made garments (RMG) and knitwears would be below 20 per cent in the current FY against around 42 per cent in the previous fiscal year when the apparel sector fetched a record $17.9 billion.

Experts said despite a persistent global slowdown, mainly in the United States and the European Union, the growth in garments exports were still encouraging and remarkable.

The European Union and the United States take more than 90 per cent of Bangladesh apparel products, officials of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said.

In the first half of the current FY the exports of woven items grew by 22.56 per cent to $4.46 billion while knit posted 11.12 per cent growth to $4.79 billion, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

During the same period in the last FY 2011 woven and knit registered a growth of 40.79 per cent and 43.39 per cent respectively, the EPB data said.

This year export of woven garments made a great stride compared to the growth of knit products because of the increase in their demand with the European Union offering EBA (everything but arms) facility under the generalised system of preference, traders said.

The BGMEA had set an export target of $20.29 billion at the onset of the current FY, when the overall exports were projected at $26.5 billion.

"We may not reach the target set for the current FY, but definitely the exports will be more than what we achieved in the apparel sector last fiscal year," Md. Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, president of BGMEA told the FE.

"The exports are still satisfactory despite the bad days(slowdown)," the BGMEA president added.

Meanwhile, the overall exports crossed $11 billion mark in the first half of the current FY and as such officials of the ministry of commerce (MoC) said they were confident of meeting the overall export target by the end of the FY.

Apparel exports constitute 80 per cent of the overall exports, they said.

"Big export growth does not recur every year. But the growth which we have achieved in the first half of the current fiscal is very much remarkable," Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, a senior vice president of BGMEA said.

Reference : Nizam Ahmed (FE)