Bangladesh is the second largest garments exporter in the world, and Japan is the number one destination for the country’s garments products in Asia, said Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan Rabab Fatima. “Knitwear is currently our number one export item to Japan,” said the ambassador while delivering her keynote speech at the Bangladesh Seminar in the Tokyo Big Sight on ‘Opportunities and Challenges of Bangladesh in Japanese Apparel market’ on Monday.The ambassador said in terms of both value and volume, Bangladesh is the 3rd largest garments exporter to Japan with 5.9 per cent of the volume of share and 3.9 per cent of the value of Japanese import.According to Fatima, Bangladeshi readymade garments hit a record growth rate in Japanese market during January-August period of the current year registering a 128.2 per cent growth.Tomofumi Nishizawa, Research manager of JETRO, Ikue Toshinaga, Industrial Development Officer of UNIDO, Senior Researcher of JTIA, Yoshiaki Kamiyama and Atsuyuki Sano of CAT Garment on Bangladesh Apparel also discussed on the potentials of Bangladesh Apparels sector in Japan at the seminar.Many buyers and representatives of Japanese companies attended the seminar, said the Bangladesh mission in Tokyo. The seminar was organized by the Embassy of Bangladesh in collaboration of Ministry of Commerce and Export Promotion Bureau of Bangladesh and was supported by Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Japan-Bangladesh Committee for Commercial and Economic Co-operation (JBCCCEC) of The Japan and Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI & TCCI) and Japan Textile Importers Association (JTIA).
