With the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic appearing to be behind us now, it is expected that the Bangladesh economy will once again reach the heights that it was achieving pre-pandemic, when in 2019, it recorded its highest GDP growth of over 8%.
To that end, the fact that the country bagged $4.60 billion in August, which was $3.38bn in the same month last year -- a 36% year-on-year growth -- is a very positive sign, and proof that we may indeed be back on the right track. In fact, Bangladesh registered export earnings worth $8.59bn in the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year 2022-23, registering a 25.31% year-on-year growth -- very encouraging signs indeed.
Bangladesh’s economic ambitions are no secret; the current regime, through its Vision 2041 plan has outlined the desire to become a high-income knowledge economy in less than two decades. Our exports will play a large role in ensuring that this goal is achieved.
With that said, the fact that the RMG sector -- while posting a 26.1% over the first two months of the fiscal year in its own right -- made up $7,11bn of total exports -- about 83% of all export earnings -- shows that we remain overly reliant on just one sector for all of our export earnings.
Make no mistake about it, while the RMG sector will remain vital to the overall prosperity of this nation, we simply cannot continue to expect over 80% of our export earnings to continue to come from this one sector alone.
If Bangladesh is serious about achieving its economic goals and becoming a high-income nation while avoiding the middle-income trap that has plagued so many nations over the 20th century, then the diversification of its export basket is non-negotiable.
