Bangladesh has potentials to raise its annual garment export to $5 billion to China, a global leader in textiles, industry analysts said.The country’s RMG sector is being privileged with duty-free export facilities to China, a sign of new opportunities, they said.Siddiqur Rahman, president of the BGMEA, told Bangladesh Post that they are trying to grab a big chunk of China’s local market. “China has a population of 1.35 billion, including an increasing middle-class income people, who can be the best buyers of Bangladeshi products,” he said.Siddiqur also said his association has not yet drawn strategies, but has made a plan to raise annual garment export worth $5 billion to China over the next three to five years.Currently, the country’s RMG export to china is small. In 2016-17 fiscal year, the country fetched $391.59 million from apparel export to China, which is 14.77 percent year-on-year rise, according to Export Promotion Bureau.The export to this destination in FY 2015-16 was $341.22 million and $304.94 million in the previous fiscal.Dr Mirza Azizul Islam, finance adviser of the former caretaker government, told Bangladesh Post that china is the best destination; but Bangladesh should also take steps to expand its market to USA and Europe.“Bangladesh is now getting duty-free privilege in Chinese market and a sound G2G policy. Now, the exporters should focus on the market demand and boost the supply,” he said.According to a recent study conducted by Switzerland-based International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), by the end of 2020, China would produce $750 billion worth of garments against currently $300 billion, half for exports and the remaining for domestic consumption.Currently, China is exporting 20 percent of the garments it produces after meeting 80 percent of the local demand.According to the statistics, the remaining 20 percent will worth some $200 billion by the end of 2020, as the country will have more than half a billion middle-class consumers.Taking the potentials into consideration the BGMEA has taken plan to enter the China’s local market.BGMEA sources said currently, some world’s big brands operating in China are buying RMG products from Bangladesh, while some local companies there are importing Bangladeshi products as well.The RMG sector is the top export earner of Bangladesh representing more than 80 percent of the total export income.The RMG exports in the past three years were $28.15 billion, $28.09 billion, and $25.49 billion.
