Chattogram Bureau :
Apparel exporters based in Chattogram have called for improving ease of doing business by removing bureaucratic complexity and introduce simplified process to ensure quick delivery of RMG export orders aimed at reaching the target of 50 billion US dollars by 2021.
Mentioning that buyers in today’s competitive markets want their goods delivered within a very short time, they said manufacturers in Bangladesh, however, require unreasonably longer lead time compared to other countries.
It takes about 40 days to send RMP products from Chattogram port to the United States, while exporters in China take 15 days to shipment a product to the USA, BGMEA leaders told. First vice president of BGMEA Syed Nazrul Islam remarked it at a views-exchange meeting with journalists of print and electronic media on Saturday at the BGMEA Regional Office in the port city.
In order to survive in the present extremely competitive market, the lead time in clothing export must be reduced, Syed Nazrul Islam, acting president of the BGMEA, told the event. To this end, factors contributing to the ease of doing business need to be simplified.
Elaborating on the problems faced by RMG manufacturers based in Chattogram, Syed Nazrul Islam said once there were 697 apparel factories in Chittagong, but 389 of them have been shut down. Out of the remaining 308 factories, only 190 are engaged in import and export activities, he added.30 garment factories in Chattogram were closed in the period between March last year and August this year amid the coronavirus crisis.” A decade ago, Chattogram’s share in the country’s overall garment exports was 40%, which has now come down to 14% due to various infrastructural problems including a crisis of gas and electricity, Nazrul said.
In his written statement, the BGMEA acting president also mentioned that local exporters do not get a quick decision from banks in various cases, such as obtaining loans to expand investment or set up factories and increasing the limit for opening letters of credit for imports, since the principal branches of the banks are not situated in Chattogram.
He also stressed the need for simplifying the VAT collection process of the Customs Excise and VAT, easing the activities related to the Customs Bond Commissionerate, speeding up the release of imported goods through the Chattogram Customs House.
