K Iftekhar Hossain, President of the Bangladesh Garments Buying House Association told in an exclusive interview with daily sunK Iftekhar Hossain There is no alternative for Bangladesh to improve its infrastructure in order to raise export earnings to $50 billion from apparel sector by the year 2021. Besides, the government should extend necessary supports by providing uninterrupted utility services to the industrial units and strengthen the activities of seaports for drawing more foreign direct investment as well as local investment. K Iftekhar Hossain, President of the Bangladesh Garments Buying House Association told in an exclusive interview with daily sun. Monopsony has appeared as a barrier to the garment makers and as a result the country fails to bag garment prices at desired level from the retailers. In this context, the apparel makers and the buying house owners should work together under a single platform to tackle the situation, he opined. Turkish garment makers can deliver a garment product within 6 weeks after the work order while the Bangladeshi products are delivered in 12 weeks to 19 weeks, he said. Poor sea-port services, inadequate transport facilities and low-level workers’ skills are the reasons behind the gloomy scenario, he explained. Services of the seaports in loading and unloading goods should be increased by at least three times, said Iftekhar. Criticizing the authority concerned heavily for slow progress in implementing Dhaka-Chittagong highway construction project, Iftekhar said, it is taking almost five years to construct the highway, which is severely affecting transportation of goods. Workers here are less skilled comparing to that of the other competitive countries like India, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam, Iftekhar said opining that there is no alternative to enhance the skills of the workers to reach the goal of fetching $50 billion earning from apparel exports. Iftekhar said, country’s investment in RMG sector should reach $4 billion-level. “Hence we need more FDI and local investment as well”, he said adding that the government should come forward with more liberal facilities in bringing FDI and encouraging more local investments. Viet Nam, Ethiopia, Cambodia are providing huge facilities including land at minimum or no charges to attract FDI. In Bangladesh, the investors are being discouraged and they are experiencing bad examples for bureaucratic complications, he informed. Asked about the retailers’ perception over the country’s RMG sector, Iftekhar said that retailers come here to do business and the garment makers have no relations expect business with them. Since Bangladesh is a market of single buyer with many sellers, the retailers have wider scope for price negotiation and as a result they enjoy cheap prices for apparel products, said Iftekhar adding the garment makers and buying house owners should work jointly to overcome this challenge. Iftekhar said that Bangladesh’s investment scenario is quite good. Due to cheap labour cost, investors put their hawk-eye here, but the government should be more liberal and the bureaucratic complications should be removed. Since garment industry is the largest sector to keep the country’s economy vibrant, there is huge opportunity to bring more FDI here, he said expressing dissatisfaction over delay in executing the Bausia Garment Palli establishment process. Branding Bangladesh abroad would be one of the important tools to catch more FDI, said Iftekhar adding that the government can make wider campaign by appointing officials in the foreign missions. Expressing optimism that the government may reach the target of bringing $50 billion by the year 2021, he said this would be possible through a coordination between the government and the stakeholders.
