Growth of Textiles Industry in Bangladesh

Textiles and garments manufacturing, which emerged and flourished in England for decades, eventually became uncompetitive and migrated to Japan and Korea; eventually migrating there to lower wage countries like Bangladesh. This sector is not only helping the country's economy by earning significant amount of foreign exchange, but has also brought about a major shift in developing support industries, employment generation, and women empowerment. The government should come forward with policy agenda by offering competitive exchange rates, streamlining customs procedures, providing further incentives in bonded warehouse facility, developing infrastructure, improving port efficiencies and ensuring uninterrupted flow.

Bangladesh had a historical reputation in production of textile products in addition to famous Dhaka muslin. Fabrics from Bengal were found in ancient Egyptian tombs, and were traded with the Roman and Chinese empires in the medieval age. In ancient Bengal a great deal of expertise existed with regards to weaving of textile products as well as great reverence towards its trade. In rural communities both men and women were apprenticed in weaving. These skills and disciplines in sewing and weaving are passed down through generations and are quickly transferred to production lines in modern knitwear factories.In the early 1980s, there were small-scale independent investments in the readymade garments (RMG) sector. At that time, it was not considered viable and received very little government attention. Within a decade, the RMG industry in Bangladesh had flourished and by the early 1990s it had emerged as a major employer. Under the dynamic leadership of the private sector together with policy support from the government, the export oriented RMG industry has shown a spectacular growth during the last two and a half decades. The textile sector initially could not keep pace with the requirement of yarn and fabrics particularly by the woven RMG sector as the textile and clothing industry was controlled by a fairly small community of local entrepreneurs. However, the sector grew with vengeance and the country currently exports over US$11 billion in textiles and garments, with a projected target of US$24 billion dollars by 2020.

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