The second biggest apparel exporter globally, the Bangladesh garment manufacturing sector is not having the best of the time lately it seems.
As per the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Dr. Rubana Huq, in the last 7 months, 59 garment factories have gone out of business while around 25,900 workers have lost their jobs.
This the BGMEA chief said in an interaction with the journalists recently in capital Dhaka while shedding light on the present situation of the garment sector.
“Most of them (factories) were small and medium enterprises and they failed to maintain compliance strictly and pay their workers under the new wage structure,” Rubana underlined, adding that Bangladesh’s apparel export has taken a hit in the recent months while that of its competitors are on the rise.
It may be mentioned here that in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, garment export from Bangladesh dropped 1.64 per cent year-on-year to US $ 8.05 billion when earnings from the sector fell 11.52 per cent short of the quarter’s target of US $ 9.10 billion.
On the other hand, garment shipment from Vietnam increased by 10.54 per cent between July and September. It was 2.2 per cent for India and 4.74 per cent for Pakistan.