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Garment makers have demanded a 10 per cent incentive on the export of garment items made from non-cotton fibres to encourage investment in man-made fibre (MMF).
Faruque Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), made the call in a letter to the commerce minister on August 21.
In the letter, the BGMEA president said that in the last fiscal year, Bangladesh imported 20.52 lakh tonnes of fibre, of which 93.57 per cent was cotton.
Currently, 403 out of the 430 spinning mills operating in the country produce cotton fibre.
So, investment and production in the MMF-based fibre industry is still low even though it has very high potential, he added.
For instance, last year the global market of the MMF-based garment industry was worth $150 billion.
Currently, Vietnam holds a 10 per cent share of the global MMF-based garment market while Bangladesh is still struggling to attain a 5 per cent share in this segment, the letter read.
Of the global garment market, some 75 per cent are MMF-based fibre and this market is growing by 3 to 4 per cent annually. Of the 75 per cent MMF products, some 64 per cent include synthetic fibre, it added.
On the other hand, the global market share of the cotton-based garment industry is growing at just 1 or 2 per cent annually.
As a result, Bangladeshi garment exporters have been losing the opportunity.
So, the government needs to give at least 10 per cent incentive on the export of MMF-based garments to attract more investment in this segment, Hassan said.
The BGMEA chief also sent two different letters to the finance secretary and the governor of Bangladesh Bank on August 22, demanding loan rescheduling facilities for up to December as garment manufacturers and exporters have been struggling amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
In the letters, he also demanded not to classify the loans of the garment sector for up to December this year so that they can be more competitive in the business.
(TDS)
