Former caretaker advisor Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman has said Chittagong should adopt the ‘Garment Village’ approach, given the port city’s land constraints. “Gazipur model of expansion is not feasible in this region,” Dr Rahman said. He was presenting a keynote paper at the policy roundtable on ‘Realising US$ 50 billion target for the RMG (readymade garments) sector: The Chittagong Mission,’ held recently at the Chittagong Club in the city. He has identified five priorities for Chittagong RMG mission. Other priorities include new search for energy solutions on ‘no gas’ reality, media campaign on stagnant port efficiency, including public debate on new opportunity such as Bay Terminal and Bulk Terminal, promoting young entrepreneurs’ forum of successful entrepreneurs on Chittagong RMG Mission, in particular and BGMEA policy leadership capacity in general and breakthrough initiative on Skills Action Plan for Chittagong.Garment village only option for Ctg He said that branding decline is one of the six major obstacles to Chittagong Big Push.
The garment industry of the country was initiated in Chittagong through Desh Garments. In the recent past, Chittagong-based garment entrepreneurs’ contribution to the national economy was 40%, which has come down to 11% now. Port efficiency is another major obstacle vis-à-vis growing demand for export and import through the prime maritime port of Chittagong that handles 92% of the country’s total external cargo while urban chaos is intensifying through disjointed infrastructure initiatives unlinked to needs on the ground. He said that a good number of flyover projects have been implemented, while some others are under construction. But most of these massive infrastructures are not linked with the needs of the common people of the region, he noted. The RMG sector needs to be given a big push prioritising a second garment hub beyond Dhaka, in Chittagong, he said. A two-pronged market strategy should be taken: to deepen penetration of existing markets in the USA, EU and Canada and make foothold in new markets: $ 310 billion Chinese market, and Japan and India. Speaking at the roundtable, State Minister for Land Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Zaved said readymade garment exporters are anxious about the loss of GSP (generalised system of preferences) facilities from the US which has, in fact, very little impact on the sector in the country. “The GSP has now turned into a political slogan. It has very little impact on the RMG of the country because exports of garments have not that much gone down in the US without the facility,” he said. He said that Vietnam is not at all a threat to the RMG export of the country as well. “I visited the country (Vietnam) several times and found they didn’t have so much capacity as our garment manufacturers have. The Vietnamese are rather idle,” he said. He said land crisis is a major problem for survival of the garment industries in Chittagong. There is no alternative to setting up garment villages in Chittagong for relocation of the scattered and would-be industries. He will try to support such projects from his ministry, he said. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Chittagong Research Institute (CRi) jointly organised the roundtable discussion in view of the national target of earning $50 billion from the RMG sector by 2021. BUET professor and former energy advisor to the caretaker government M. Tamim, former Power secretary Fouzul Kabir Khan and former governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, among others, addressed the meeting. First vice president of the BGMEA Nasiruddin Ahmed Chowdhury chaired the meeting. National experts and local businesses said the country needs to achieve 8.0 per cent annual growth that may pave way for reaching the target of $50 billion from the garment sector in the next six years. Regarding Dhaka-Chittagong connectivity, Mr Zaved said the highway will be a six-lane expressway. Many countries have offered to build that on the BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis. Once it is built, a good number of satellite cities will grow up centering the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. Dhaka, which has a population of around 16 million now, will be a distance of 30 to 40 minutes by car from the satellite cities, he said, adding pressure on Dhaka city will greatly be reduced then. Former BB governor Dr Saleh Uddin said the contribution of Chittagong to the national GDP (gross domestic product) is 11 to 12 per cent now. Chittagong needs to play greater role for the sake of the national economy. “Unless and until you ensure the expected development in Chittagong you cannot expect to reach the national export target.” Regarding the proposed Paira Port, he said the project needs infrastructure, other facilities and stakeholders anew. To grow up these institutions, you will take a long time. On the other hand, Chittagong has the required manpower and facilities like major Seaport, Customs and Stevedores already working there. “It is difficult to grow up these things anew. Besides, there are seven sisters of India, Myanmar and BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar) corridor up to Kunming of China. You need to use Chittagong to go to those corridors,” he said. Professor M Tamim said the $50. billion RMG export target will be possible only when the annual GDP is 8.0%. It is impossible to realise that growth only by depending on the RMG. Chittagong is suffering gas starvation for long 15 years. “We have been stuck up as our economy is fully gas-based. We always say gas in industry is profitable. On the other hand, the politicians cannot snap household gas lines because it is a political challenge,” he said. “We must consider alternative options from the point that we have zero gas. The businesses should discuss the issue with the government. Businesses in Gujrat are running their boilers with husk of grains. We should also think of alternative fuel,” he said. Former BGMEA president SM Fazlul Haque, PHP group chairman Sufi Mizanur Rahman, CMCCI vice president AM Mahbub Chowdhury, Chittagong Stock Exchange director Md Mohiuddin, SM Abu Tayab, Ershad Ullah, Lub-rref (Bangladesh) Ltd MD Mohammed Yousuf, visiting scholar of Chittagong Independent University A Qaiyum Chowdhury, former vice chancellor of Chittagong University Anwarul Azim Arif, former Member of Chittagong Port Authority Hadi Hossain Babul, former BGMEA first vice president Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, former BGMEA director Md Helal Uddin, CMCCI director MA Awal, CCCI director Mahfuzul Haque Shah, among others, spoke on the occasion.
