Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The country might not achieve its export target of US$33.20 billion set for the current fiscal due to poor performance of key export commodities, mainly ready-made garments, officials said.
They said, if the country wants to earn US$4.06 billion or more in the last month of the outgoing fiscal, it needs proper guidance and good planning to improve shipments of key export commodities which is quite impossible.
According to the latest data of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), the country earned US$28.14 billion in the first 11 months (July-May) of the outgoing fiscal 2014-15, showing only 2.8 per cent growth from a year earlier.
“Shipment of apparels which accounted for nearly 81 per cent of Bangladesh’s total exports last fiscal, fell short of expectation of export target during the period under review,” a senior commerce ministry official told The New Nation yesterday.
He said that the US and Europe are the key export destinations for local apparels. But the exporters are receiving unsatisfactory orders from the buyers of these markets, affecting the country’s overall export earnings.
The EPB data shows that Bangladesh earned US$22.91 billion from apparel exports during July-May period of the outgoing fiscal. The income from the garments sector fell short by US$1.33 billion from that of strategic export target set for the period under review. Apparel exporters however blamed a prolonged political unrest for the sluggish growth in their exports.
“Overall growth of apparel export hovered only 3.0 per cent during the first 11 months of the outgoing fiscal reflecting the adverse impact of the latest political turmoil,” Reaz Bin Mahmood, Vice-President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) told The New Nation yesterday.
He added that the local industry was facing difficulty to maintain export growth in key markets. At the same time, its competitors have been able to manage a hefty export growth there.
Referring to a data, he said, Vietnam posted a 13.28 per cent apparel export growth, India 10.58 per cent and Pakistan 8.75 per cent during July to April period of current year.
“Such a growth of our competitors reflects that Bangladeshi apparels are losing ground in the global arena mainly due to high cost of doing business resulted from political turmoil coupled with deep-seated infrastructure problem,” he noted.
Reaz Bin Mahmood also expressed his pessimism over achieving this year’s export target due to poor shipment growth of apparels. The country earned US$30.18 billion from merchandise export in the fiscal year 2013-14.
