For a long time, Bangladesh has relied on its RMG sector as the veritable engine of our economy, and while the industry continues to flourish it is increasingly becoming evident that, unless we find ways to diversify our export basket, our economy will hit a ceiling.
And it is in that context that Bangladesh's export earnings further experienced a year-on-year negative growth of 16.52% in April of the 2022-23 fiscal year for the second consecutive month, with the RMG sector undergoing a 15.48% negative growth. RMG makes up more than 80% of the country's total export earnings, and as corroborated by the Covid-19 pandemic, any disruption in the industry can be extremely damaging.
Disruptions aside, to simply rely on a handful of industries for economic growth is never a wise idea to begin with as it not only limits what we export but also where we export to.
The United States and European countries have traditionally been the go-to destinations for Bangladeshi exports, a more diverse export basket can ultimately pave the way to newer export destinations as well. Some of the more obvious areas that our country can focus on are ICT and vocational skills, frozen foods, agricultural projects, finished jute, leather, and electronics.
Foreign remittance earned through unskilled labour is the other big contributor to our economy and this sector, in particular, stands to gain the most from charting newer export destinations. Our nation has relied on the same handful of Middle Eastern nations when it comes to sending out hard-working men and women abroad, and given the raft of anecdotes of employers behaving unscrupulously in these nations makes finding newer export destinations all the more imperative.
There are more than enough avenues that Bangladesh can take to slowly move away from our current over-reliance on the RMG sector and unskilled labour, we just need to seize the opportunities.