Bangladesh Garments Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association has sought land and green banking facilities from government for making the sector compliant and environment-friendly. “A special palli is needed to make the accessories industry compliant. If the government provides us lands for relocation of factories from the capital, it will help to grab a global market share,” said the Association’s president Rafez Alam Chowdhury. He was addressing the inauguration of a four-day exposition of garment accessories and packaging yesterday at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC). The event titled GAP EXPO-2015 will, among other things, include showcasing of latest developments in machinery and technology in the accessories sector. The Expo will continue till Saturday. Rafez Alam also called for green financing as there is no such facility offered for the sector. Minister for Textiles and Jute Mohammad Emaz Uddin Pramanik, State Minister for Finance MA Mannan, Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury and industry leaders were also present at the function. Addressing the inaugural ceremony as chief gust, Industry Minister Amir Hossain Amu said: “We are working towards developing expansion of various industries reducing dependency only on garment industry.” He said the government had given a special importance on sectors like shipbuilding, recycling, pharmaceutical, leather industry, ceramics and information technology. Responding to the demand of land for setting up a garment accessories palli (village), industries minister said the government could provide 5-10 bighas of land at the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) area. “We will urge the BGMEA (garment makers and exporters’ association) to give some plots for accessories in Bausdia Garment Palli as it can help the RMG owners reduce transportation cost.” BGMEA vice president Shahidullah Azim said when the RMG industry was launched first in this country, there was no backward linkage sector. But now it is available and 15-20 such items are met locally, he said. Azim, however, put emphasis on stable situations inside the industry and in politics to develop a sustainable sector. He said buyers were avoiding visit to Bangladesh due to political unrest and asking exporters to go to Hong Kong or Indonesia for holding negotiations on placing orders. According to him, if the negotiation is held in abroad, the exporters are likely to lose the volume. “In that case, for example, the orders could reduce to 40%.” In his speech, the garment accessories association president Rafez demanded cash incentive for the sectors like RMG. He said the $50bn RMG export could not be achieved unless a full backward linkage support is available for the industry. According to accessories association, Bangladesh earned $4.75bn through “deemed” export of RMG accessories products last fiscal year. The sector has set annual targets of “deemed” export at $12bn by 2018 and $18bn by 2025. Currently, the garment accessories manufacturers provide 35 items to the apparel sector and also packaging materials to frozen foods and pharmaceutical sectors.
