In keeping with our goal of strengthening the economy in sustainable ways, Bangladesh continues to maintain its dominance in the US denim market as it remains its top supplier for the first five months of the calendar year. During this period, Bangladesh exported goods worth $336.6 million to the US. Given that our total worth of denim exports was close to $800 ml last year, and we have already covered half of that from a single market, this is a trajectory that should be commended indeed.
Both the US and the EU are among our biggest export destinations when it comes to the export of our denim products. Changes in the global business environment has also made it more profitable to buy RMG products from us, but we only have this advantage because we pay low wages. Given that we are on the cusp of graduating from the LDC status, paying low wages is a strategy that will cease to be sustainable in the near future. As such, we need to make changes in the denim industry while making sure that we continue to be a reliable partner for markets like the US.
The government should also introduce incentives for the holistic growth of the overall RMG industry -- not just the products that are our best sellers. We also need to modernize both procedure and equipment when it comes to the RMG industry, and government support, in this case, is paramount.
Ultimately however, we do have to emphasize the diversification part of our goal as well. While we should definitely focus on what works, we cannot be blind to the future and miss out on opportunities for what will also work. To that end, we need to be both pro-active and daring in our enterprises.