Gross value addition from country’s readymade garment sector in the first half of current financial year 2018-19 (July-December) increased slightly from that of the financial year 2017-18.According to the quarterly review of Bangladesh Bank, the gross value addition from the readymade garment sector stood 63.23 per cent in the first half or the current financial year 2018-19.The value addition in FY 19 was 60.94 per cent, the data showed.Bangladesh Bank calculated the value addition considering the import price of raw materials including cotton, synthetic/viscose fibre, synthetic/mixed yarn, cotton yarn and textile fabrics and accessories.It showed that import price of raw materials in the July-December period of FY 19 stood at $6.28 billion which is 36.77 per cent of total export earnings from RMG sector of $17.08 billion in the period. Thus, raw materials prices shared 36.77 per cent of the total value of RMG export. It means local value addition is estimated at 63.23 per cent.‘The existing trend of local value addition in RMG sector is satisfactory and we have little scope to increase the value addition more as we have no cotton,’ Policy Research Institute executive director Ahsan H Mansur told New Age on Saturday.He said that the local value addition could reach to 70-75 per cent if the textile sector can produce high quality fabrics.‘To grow more, we have to concentrate to develop fabrics in woven sector as knitwear sector is making more than 80 per cent value addition,’ Mansur said. The BB data showed that the import value of raw materials was $11.95 billion against the total earnings from RMG at $30.61 billion in the FY 18.According to the data, the import value of raw materials in FY 18 was 39.06 per cent of total export earnings from RMG and the local value addition was 60.94 per cent. The report also showed that the local value addition from RMG sector remained static between 60-63 per cent in the past six years.The BB data showed that the gross value addition from RMG sector was 61.67 per cent in FY 17, 63.66 per cent in FY 16, 62.37 per cent in FY 15, 60.51 per cent in FY 14 and 61.76 per cent in FY 13. The quarterly report showed that total export earnings from RMG during October-December of FY19 increased by 8.56 per cent as compared to the previous quarter and 16.58 per cent compared to the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal year. During October-December of FY19, RMG sector earned 8.89 billion which was 84.22 per cent of total export earnings.This share was 82.44 per cent in the same quarter of the corresponding year, data showed.The data also showed that, country’s RMG sector earned $30.61 billion in the FY 18 with 8.76 per cent growth and the earnings were 83.43 per cent of total export.
