Business Desk :
Vietnam crossed Bangladesh to become the second largest clothing exporter globally in 2020 by maintaining a persistent growth in most of the years in last decade.
World Trade Statistical Review 2021, released by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday, unveiled the picture. It showed that Vietnam’s share in global ready-made garment (RMG) exports stood at 6.40 per cent in 2020 which was 6.20 per cent in 2019.
At the same time, Bangladesh’s share in global market of clothing exports dropped to 6.30 per cent in 2020 from 6.80 per cent in 2019. The ratio was 6.40 per cent in 2018.
The share of Bangladesh in the global clothing export market was 4.20 per cent in 2010 when the share of Vietnam was 2.90 per cent.
WTO statistical review report also showed that exports of Vietnam RMG products declined by 7.0 per cent in the last year when Bangladesh faced 15 per cent decline mainly due to Covid-19.
The value of annual RMG exports from Bangladesh in the last year was estimated at US$28 billion when it was $29 billion for Vietnam. China remained the top clothing exporter in the world and its its share increased to 31.60 per cent in the last year from 30.80 per cent in 2019.
As Vietnam became the third largest exporter of clothing after China and European Union (EU), according to the WTO publication, Bangladesh slipped to fourth position. If EU’s combined export figure were disaggregated country-wise, Vietnam and Bangladesh would be the second and third largest global exporter of ready-made garments respectively.
India also slipped to sixth position as Turkey overtook the South-Asian country becoming fifth largest exporters of clothing globally. Exports from India declined by 25 per cent in the last year.
WTO statistics also showed that the annual value of top 10 exporters of clothing stood at $378 billion, a big decline from $411.0 billion in 2019.
