Bangladesh has achieved two new billion-dollar export markets in the current 2018-19 financial year in addition to the existing nine such markets. The export earnings from India and Poland topped one billion US dollars in the first 10 months of the FY 19 because of the extraordinary performance of the country’s apparel sector. The export income from India in the July-April period of the FY 19 totalled $1.07 billion, 52.98 per cent higher from $701.56 million posted in the same period of the FY 18, while that from Poland in the period grew 29.80 per cent to $1.02 billion from $787.91million, according to Export Promotion Bureau data.According to EPB statistics, Bangladesh’s export to India in the 2017-18 financial year fetched $873.27 million while the earnings from Poland stood at $965.22 million in the period. The country’s hitherto billion-dollar markets were: the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan.Along with Bangladesh’s exports to Japan, its exports to Belgium had also reached the billion-dollar mark in the FY 16 but later as Bangladesh’s export growth to that country went down it slipped from the position.Exporters and experts said that it was a good sign that Bangladesh’s exports to India and Poland exceeded one billion dollars, adding that the country had the opportunity to export goods worth billion dollars or more to more countries in coming days.‘Our business ties with India have been strengthened in the last few years and the export earnings from that country have significantly increased. We have more scope to grow in the market,’ Fazlul Hoque, former president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told New Age on Thursday.He said that Bangladesh’s readymade garment export to India increased significantly as the local demand of that country increased and many global retailers opened their outlets in India.‘If the non-tariff barriers are removed, Bangladesh’s export to India will grow more,’ Fazlul said.He also said that it was encouraging that Bangladesh’s share had increased in Poland’s market, which was earlier dominated by Turkey and China.Some of Bangladesh’s apparel products go to Germany and Russia through Poland, which is itself a strong economy to consume a significant quantity of fashion items from Bangladesh, Fazlul Hoque said.‘It’s a positive thing for Bangladesh that the export earnings from India and Poland topped one billion dollars in the first 10 months of the current financial year but we have scope to increase our exports to one billion dollars or beyond in many other non-traditional market,’ Khondoker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said.Although, Bangladesh’s exports have topped one billion dollars in both India and Poland, there are some differences in the two markets. There are huge opportunities for Bangladesh to export non-traditional products to India and policy makers and exporters should take that advantage to export non-RMG products to that market, he said.Some other new destinations, including China and Russia, could also be billion-dollar markets for Bangladesh and the government and exporters should devise policies to gain greater shares in those markets, Moazzem said. EPB data show that the export earnings from the United States, the largest export market for Bangladesh, in the July-April period of the FY 19 grew by 16.17 per cent to $5.71 billion from $4.92 billion in the same period of the FY 18.The country’s exports to Germany, the second largest destination for its goods, grew by 7.10 per cent to $5.26 billion in the July-April period of the current fiscal year from $4.91 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.The income from the exports to the United Kingdom, the third largest export market for Bangladesh, grew by 3.77 per cent to $3.50 billion in the period.The exports to Japan in the July-April of the ongoing fiscal year went up by 22.57 per cent to $1.17 billion from $956.03 million in the corresponding period of the earlier fiscal year.The export revenue from China in the first 10 months of this fiscal year increased by 26.14 per cent to $709.06 million from $562.11 million in the same period of the last fiscal year.
