Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed Sunday said South Korea and Japan would be future potential markets for Bangladeshi leather and leather goods due to duty-free market access.
Referring to country’s 13.02 percent export growth so far achieved during the current fiscal, he said exporters should explore new markets to give a big boost the export earning.
He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Environment-Friendly Leather Industry in Bangladesh; Roadmap to Competitiveness and Sustainability’ at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the city.
Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), the state-run organization to promote and expand exports, and RMM Leather Industries Ltd jointly arranged the seminar.
Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu spoke on the occasion as the chief guest while Environment and Forests Minister Anwar Hossain Monju, lawmaker Barrister Fazle Nur Tapash, Senior Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed and first vice-president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Monowara Hakim Ali spoke as special guests.
Managing director of RMM Leather Industries Aniruddha Kumar Roy and chairman of Bangladesh Science and Industrial Research (BCSIR) Professor Dr AI Mostafa presented keynote papers at the seminar.
EPB Vice-chairman Bhubhashish Bose, chairman of RMM Leather Industries Mohiuddin Ahmed Mohin, leather industry experts and industrial entrepreneurs, among others, addressed the function.
Amu alleged that foreign buyers are playing with Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) industry following the Rana Plaza tragedy.
“We’re setting up environment-friendly central effluent treatment plant (CETP) at Savar to keep the leather industry from such a play,” he said.
The industries minister called upon the leather industry people to relocate their factories from Hazaribagh to Savar to supplement the government’s efforts in this regard.
Anwar Hossain identified the country’s local market as a vast opportunity for massive industrialization.
Bangladesh earned 1.06 billion US dollars from export of leather and leather goods during the last 10 months of the current fiscal.
The earnings account for less than one percent of the US$230b global leather market.
