Canada has offered to partner with Bangladesh’s garment manufacturers in developing the country’s biggest export sector that aims to become a US $ 50 billion industry by 2021.
Benoit Prefontaine, High Commissioner of Canada to Bangladesh, conveyed the message to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) during a courtesy call at BGMEA Complex, Dhaka, on March 6, 2018.
BGMEA’s President Md Siddiqur Rahman, Senior Vice President Faruque Hassan, Vice President SM Mannan Kochi, Vice President (Finance) Mohammed Nasir, BGMEA Directors and senior officials of the Canadian High Commission in Dhaka attended the meeting.
Insiders say that various issues in Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry including a special focus on how Canada and BGMEA can collaborate for the development of the sector in Bangladesh were discussed at the meeting.
Mohammed Nasir told Apparel resources that BGMEA has sought Canada’s cooperation in increasing the volume of garment exports to the North American country. “We have also requested Canada to maintain our ‘duty-free’ access to their market once we graduate out of Least Developed Country (LDC) club.”
(Bangladesh is expecting to graduate out of the LDC club this month as it believes it has surpassed all the conditions set by the UN monitoring agency.)
Canada presently offers Bangladesh the duty-free access to its market under the LDC tag. Also, there is a 5 per cent cash incentive in place for Bangladesh’s exporters to export to traditional markets like the US, Germany (and Canada itself).
According to the latest data by Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), during July-February 2018, Bangladesh exported US $ 633 million worth of apparel products to the Canadian market which accounts for 85 per cent of the total export (US $ 737 million) to the North American country.
The readymade garments (RMG) is Bangladesh’s biggest export sector with 3.6 million (approx.) workforces, occupying over 82 per cent of the country’s total export basket, with a net worth of nearly US $ 30 billion.
The country’s apparel manufacturers and exporters believe they can give a big boost to the industry and turn it into a US $ 50 billion-sector in four years. Bangladesh Government also has big hopes from the sector and considers it has the potential to become a US $ 60 billion industry in six years.
LightCastle Partners, a Bangladesh-based think tank, said in a recent survey that the readymade garment industry, along with five other sectors, has been identified as the highest potential growth sector for the coming decades… And an agreement with Canada will further bolster export figures of Bangladesh.