The government may set the current fiscal year’s export target at $32.8bn with a 5.13% growth amid economic slowdown in destination countries. The target in the FY2014-15 was $32.2bn and Bangladesh earned $31.19bn with 3.35% growth from the previous fiscal. “As per the EPB recommendation, $32.8bn will be the export target for the fiscal year 2015-16 with 5.13% growth,” said a commerce ministry source preferring anonymity. Export Promotion Bureau has prepared related papers on the basis of last year’s data and sent them to commerce ministry for consideration. The documents were prepared to present at a meeting which was due yesterday at the city’s EPB office. But the meeting, which was supposed to be chaired by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, was postponed because of cabinet meeting. The commerce ministry official said the growth target for woven sector would be set at 6.53%, knitwear 4.94%, leather 5% and plastic 11%. He said agriculture products and frozen foods export would, however, see negative growth target. Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman said the government should set export target considering global economic situation, demand, local production capacity, new development in global market, recent trade agreements, free trade agreement and supply chain situation. “We should take competitors’ targets and their achievement process into account while fixing our target,” he said. He suggested the government and the authorities concerned focus on exploring new export destinations. In the last fiscal, Bangladesh’s export earning was over 6% short of the target. Political unrest, devaluation of euro against US dollar, weak global demand and reform measures in the country’s garment industry were identified as reasons behind the failure. Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s readymade garment exports displayed the poorest performance in six years with 4.1% rise in the just-concluded fiscal year while the country’s overall export growth also slumped to 13-year low.
