Braving the countrywide political violent programme, the country’s export earnings from the ready-made garment sector have registered an 8.40% growth to $2.08bn in March compared to the same period last year. According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data released yesterday, Bangladesh fetched $2.07bn, exporting clothing products in March, which was $1.91bn last year. Meanwhile, in July-March period of the current fiscal year, RMG export rose by 3.18% to $18.62bn against the last year export value of $18.05bn. This figure is 4.72% less than that of the target of $19.55bn set for the first nine months of the current fiscal year. During the July-March period, Knitwear export earnings stood at $9.07 with a rise of 2.7% from the previous year’s $8.83bn. Woven products earned $9.56bn growing at 3.64% as the previous year’s figure was $9.22bn, EPB data showed. “This 8.40% export growth in RMG sector does not reflect our expectation as we expected 15% growth last year,” Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association immediate past first vice-president Mohammad Hatem told the Dhaka Tribune. Hatem blamed widespread political unrest for the failure to reach the expected target. If the present calm situation prevails in the country’s political arena, the export earnings thrive from July-August of next fiscal year. To reach the export target set by the government, Bangladesh needs to achieve 10% growth per month, or else it won’t be possible to reach the target, he added. The government has set an export target of $26.9bn from the RMG sector for the fiscal year 2014-15. “An 8% growth is not bad, but the concern lies in the upcoming months when the sector might witness the impact of the political unrest,” Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) president Abdus Salam Murshedy told the Dhaka Tribune. The current growth is the refection of previous work orders as it takes three to four months to execute an order, he said. The EPB data showed that Bangladesh earned over $22.9bn posting a 2.98% growth in first nine months of the current fiscal year over the same period earning of $22.24bn last year. But the earning fell short of 5%to reach the target of $24.12bn set for the period. In March, Bangladesh earned $2.59bn, which was 7.43% higher compared to the same period last year. But the figure is 8.97% less than that of its set target of $2.84bn. As per the BGMEA data, over 4.5 million workers are employed in the industry and 80% of them are women mostly from rural areas.
