Bangladesh has set a target to earn $47 billion exporting apparel products in the fiscal year 2022-23, with a 10.30 percent growth projection. At a media briefing, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi made the announcement where sector people and government high officials from the ministry and Export Promotion Bureau were present.
Of the total target, $25.60 billion is expected to earn from knitwear goods. the amount would be 10.28 percent higher than real export earnings of $23.21 billion. While $21.40 billion will come from woven products, and the expected growth rate is 10.32 percent. it was $19.40 last year.
Meanwhile, the government also has set the total export target at $58 billion for merchandise and $ 9 billion for services. In FY22, Bangladesh’s export earnings rose by 34.38 percent to $52 billion, of which 42.61 billion came from the RMG sector.
In FY22, export earnings from RMG products rose sharply by 35.47 percent to $42.61 billion, which was $31.45 billion in the previous year. Of the $42.61 billion, knitwear products fetched $23.21 billion, up by 36.88 percent from last fiscal year’s $19.91 billion, while woven items earned $19.49 billion, registering a 33.82 percent growth.
In setting the export target for the country’s apparel sector, the impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict was taken into consideration for the current fiscal year, said Tipu Munshi. The target is achievable as the global buyers are placing work orders as they have confidence in exporters as they kept commitment amid the pandemic by ensuring delivery in time, said Tipu.
What exporters say:
The target is achievable but it will highly depend on the economic recovery in the export destinations. While ongoing war, which disrupted the supply chain and push inflation up, is a big concern for us, said industry people.
We are very much hopeful to attain the target. it will not be difficult to achieve if the government continues the policy support provided last year to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic shocks, said BGMEA president Faruque Hassan.
Due to the soaring inflation in EU ND UD, the demand of products are likely to decline. While the cost of production increased due to a rise in raw materials price, said Hassan. In the present situation, the government should reduce the tax at source to 0.5 percent, which had been increased to 1 percent in the current fiscal year, he said. The Business leader also called for not to home gad and electricity prices and prove uninterrupted supply.
