The government may set a lower export target for the current fiscal (2015-2016) to $32.8 billion, compared to $33.2 billion of last fiscal, as the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) fears it would be difficult to bring higher earning from exports for instability in the global market. High-level EPB sources said, the bureau is ready to suggest the government for revising the target down for this fiscal. Though the target for this year will be lower than that of last fiscal, it is 5.13 percent more than that of the actual earning of last fiscal. EPB Vice-Chairman Shubhashish Bose told daily sun that they are going to make the recommendation considering the global market situation. “As the global market situation is not favorable to the Bangladeshi products, we are going to suggest the commerce ministry to set the export target at $32.8 billion for the fiscal 2015-2016,” Shubhashish Bose told daily sun over phone. “Prices of apparel items have decreased in EU and US markets. US dollar and Russian currency rubble have also shown fluctuation against the Bangladeshi currency Taka hampering the country’s export”, Subhashis said adding that considering all these things, EPB has decided to propose $32.8 billion export target for the current fiscal. It was learnt that the state-run agency is going to suggest the target with 6.53 percent growth for woven – a sub-sector of readymade garment sector while 4.94 percent for knitwear sector. Mentionable, the government had set export target $33,200 million for the last fiscal year. At the end of the fiscal year, the country fetched $31198.45 million from exports, marking 6.03 percent shortfall. Of total export proceeds, $25591.4 million came from the readymade garment, which is almost 81 percent of the country’s total export, according to EPB data. Political instability has been blamed by the exporters for such a shortfall in earning the foreign currencies, according to information.
