The government has decided to open six more commercial counsellor offices abroad as part of efforts to earn $50bn from garment exports by 2021.
The offices will be in Seoul, Geneva, Kunming, Istanbul, Singapore City and Pretoria to give advice on achieving export targets.
“Of them, the government has already finalised the decisions to set up commercial counsellor offices in Seoul and Geneva,” Additional commerce secretary Shawkat Ali Waresi told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He added four others will be finalised in next three months.
Bangladesh currently has a total of 19 commercial counsellor offices across the world.
The commercial counsellor offices usually advise exporters about different countries and demand of goods there.
Secretary said the counsellor offices will be given export targets in a year.
But some exporters alleged that the commerce ministry does not consult with respective embassies about export prospects and demand of goods while setting targets.
They said embassies are given some export figures as targets and a list of commodities to be exported, which were not discussed even with exporters.
According to them, commercial counsellors then become “shadow” sellers who never see the goods they are asked to sell.
The exporters are also concerned about efficiency of the cousellors.
“If commercial counsellors are not efficient, the exporters will not benefit from them,” said Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Exporters Association of Bangladesh.
He suggested evaluating performance of the commercial counsellors at regular intervals.
Murshedy also emphasised the need to coordinate efforts to double garment export by 2021.
Senior commerce secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, ndc said the ministry set targets for commercial counsellors after surveys and discussions with exporters.
He said they evaluate commercial counsellors’ performance on the basis of their efforts to achieve targets, not on the success.
He said BGMEA targets to earn $50bn by 2021 but the commerce ministry wants to achieve $70bn exports from garment industry by that year.
According to Export Promotion Bureau, 24 out of 51 Bangladeshi missions in abroad have failed to achieve export targets for July-May period of fiscal year 2013-14.
The key Bangladesh missions like those in Washington, London, Ottawa, Tokyo, New Delhi and Canberra have failed to achieve their July-May export targets.
Some other important missions –- Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Rome, The Hague and Stockholm -- have been able to reach their targets for the 11-month period, according to a news report.
The overall export earnings for the July-May period totalled $27.4bn against the strategic target of $27.43bn with 0.21% short of the strategic target.
