The time can never be better than now for Bangladesh manufacturers and exporters to take steps to effectively tackle Myanmar factor. With strong trade-ties with China, Myanmar manufacturers have all the potentials to benefit from Chinese expertise for establishing domestic backward linkages and forward linkages with global market in the near future.
Looking at market chain Bangladesh is still the second most attractive destination after Cambodia and it is right time our manufacturers have to stress more to using high-end technology to go for smarter and efficient production; which will also significantly reduce the products’ cost. Also, it needs a clear understanding that the ‘cheap-labour’ factor for Bangladesh will not remain a constant blessing in our labour intensive production system. So our garment industry must try to shift from low cost production of basic items to high value items with widely diversified product base to capture a major share of medium and top-end branded items. In our view production and marketing strategy must be constantly reviewed for adaptation with changing time.
Need of the hour is to closely monitor our competitors to remain competitive. It is more important for us when 85 percent of Bangladesh exports earning come from garment exports and producers are working on expansion plan of the industry to raise export earning to US$ 50 billion within few years. True, that Bangladesh has big market share in Europe and North America, but then again the country strategy must be to remain low cost suppliers with higher rate productivity.
We can’t forget that China is abandoning the garment industry for higher cost of labour that makes it uncompetitive in global market. Given China’s ever increasing high-costs in production our manufacturers will have to tactfully and strategically take the market in our favour and that needs strategic policies to deal with newly emerging competitors like Myanmar and the rest.
