BD RMG & Industry Diversification

RMG is the largest export-oriented industrial sector of Bangladesh.

Last year, 84% of total foreign currency came from RMG Sector which refers a comforting zone of this sector apparently that the export growth of RMG is steady.

WTO report of 2019 showed that Bangladesh retained its position as the second-largest global exporter of clothing where China is at the top. Though Bangladesh is a leading textile exporter with a turnover of $38.73 Bn. whereas one of our two closest rivals, firstly China has an export turnover of $151.37 Bn. which is about 4times more than us and secondly Vietnam has an export turnover of $27Bn that is 5.9% of global market share.

This is for the development of the socio-economic system of our country and to keep the wheel of the country's economy moving, we need to apply identical ideas & modern advanced technology in this sector.
The traditional garments that are made in our country are being bought by buyers from outside the world at a much lower price.

In addition, the international buyer's group has imposed various conditions on environmental protection, including ensuring a fair working environment for workers which is Know as Industry Compliance, but the buyers are not willing to pay the price for their garments accordingly.
As a result, we are facing considerable challenges for surviving in the field of RMG in recent times and the crisis has taken definite shape in this transition period during COVID -19 pandemic.

Certainly, it is not possible to leave other RMG exporter countries including China just by exporting traditional apparel which we have been doing for so long.
In order to overtake them, we need to focus on specialized diversified garments for both apparel and non-apparel(home textile, agriculture, civil engineering, industrial, medical & hygiene, etc) use.

so that we can leave other countries behind not only in exports but also in earnings and this could also pull the conclusion to the issues like profitability and sustainability which are a concern as business costs are getting higher and higher as industries are entering into an era of automation and more & more efforts are concentrated towards compliance and safety issues.

As buyers are still not ready to pay extra costs for traditional products, it is becoming difficult especially for the small factories to survive. Again, only depending on the RMG industry can be a dangerous phenomenon for the economy of Bangladesh.

So it is really important for us to adopt strategies to diversify the industry in terms of products and also market so that helps us to sustain in this competitive global markets & we must do it.

Reference:
http://textilefocus.com/rmg-industry-outlook-2019/

Khadiza Newaz
Department of TMDM, 44th Batch
Bangladesh University Of Textiles (BUTEX)