Readymade garment export to China witnessed more than 27 per cent increase while that to India suffered nearly 8 per cent decrease in the July-March period of the current financial year 2016-17. Exporters and experts said in view of potentiality, China would be the big market for Bangladesh in future while various technical barriers imposed by the Indian authorities were holding back Bangladesh’s exports to the market. Country’s exports to China in the nine months of FY17 fetched $736.92 million, which is 32.06 per cent higher than the earnings of $558.01 million in the same period of FY16, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data. RMG export to China in the July-March period of FY17 grew by 27.11 per cent to $285.07 million from $224.26 million in the same period of FY16. Data showed that leather and leather products export to China increased by 27.19 per cent to $214.23 million from $ 168.43 million. Export earnings from India in the July-March period of FY17 grew by 7.28 per cent to $522.83 million but earnings from export of two major items — RMG and jute and jute goods — decreased in the period. According to the EPB Data, RMG export to India in the nine months of FY17 fell by 7.85 per cent to $96.99 million from $105.25 million in the same period of FY16. Jute and jute goods export to India in the nine months decreased by 17.08 per cent to $142.14 million from $171.41 million in the same period of the last financial year, data showed. ‘Economy in both China and India is growing but Bangladesh’s export to India experienced negative growth due its [Indian] domestic production and various nontariff barriers,’ Khondoker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, told New Age on Saturday. He said that China was shifting its domestic production of basic products to high-end and high-tech items and meeting domestic demand for basic products through imports. Moazzem said that the RMG import by China would increase in the coming days and it was a promising market for Bangladesh. He said that to gain the market share in China Bangladesh would have to remain competitive as competing countries were also grabbing share of the market. According to Moazzem, Bangladesh export to India was not smooth as exporters face various technical barriers regarding testing facility of products at border, complexities in registration requirement, product specification and border specification. He said that not for RMG, India might be the important export destination for non-traditional products and Bangladesh should concentrate on the products. Shahidullah Azim, former vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that complex procedure in payment, poor infrastructure in land ports and devaluation of the Indian currency rupee were the main reasons for not increasing export to India. He said that both RMG exporters and banks in Bangladesh were unwilling to make any business deal with Indian businesses as some Bangladeshi companies were previously deceived by Indian companies. Azim said that initiative from the governments of Bangladesh and India was needed to take the advantage of duty-free market access announced the Indian authorities for Bangladesh.
