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The country’s apparel and textile sector leaders on Monday stressed the need for local and foreign direct investments in non-cotton-based backward linkage industries to tap potentials of manmade fibres on the global market.
In a business session of the International Investment Summit-2021 organised by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority at the Hotel Radisson in the capital, Dhaka, the garment sector leaders said that Bangladesh needed to strengthen the backward linkage industry particularly in the woven textiles as the local mills could meet only 35-40 per cent of fabrics of total exports.
The two-day International Investment Summit-2021 ended on Monday.
‘It is high time to diversify our export basket to non-cotton areas and this is a potential area of investments,’ Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Faruque Hassan said.
He said 75 per cent of the total global apparel consumption was non-cotton whereas the share of cotton products was 75 per cent of Bangladesh’s total exports.
‘Out of 433 spinning mills in Bangladesh, only 27 mills produce synthetic and acrylic yarns,’ Faruque said.
He also said that using own fabrics would be a requirement for Bangladesh to avail European GSP Plus as soon as the current Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme faces out after the graduation of the country from the least developed to a developing one.
‘So we need to have more investments in the textile sector,’ the BGMEA president said.
Mohammad Ali Khokon, president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, sought policy support for the weaving mills and manmade fibres to fill the current shortage of woven fabrics.
He demanded that the government should waive taxes for the sectors for the next 10 years to grow.
Shwapna Bhowmick, head of the Bangladesh Sourcing Office for Marks & Spencer, said Bangladesh was the biggest sourcing country for the British retailer and they were thinking of buying more.
She stressed a strong backward linkage industry in Bangladesh saying that huge quantities of fabrics and related materials were being imported from China, Korea and Taiwan to produce lingerie, suits and activewear.
Shwapna said that ease of doing business was also important for Bangladesh as all the process of investment was still dependent on manual systems.
She emphasised skilling, reskilling and multiskilling of workers for the future business.
‘Bangladesh is becoming the most important for RMG as China is not interested in growing the industry further. We like to invite investors to invest in the country,’ Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, a former BGMEA president, said in the event chaired by Dhaka North City Corporation mayor Md Atiqul Islam.
(NA)
