Exports of Bangladeshi readymade garment (RMG) products to non-traditional markets rose by a respectable 21% during the fiscal year of 2013-14, with countries such as Australia, Chile, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey importing more and more of our RMG products. This is exceptional news for a sector of our country which cannot claim to have had a stable business climate recently.
While our RMG sector’s export roots are still planted fairly firmly in the United States and Europe, it is encouraging to see its market expand to the more exotic parts of the latter and the steadily burgeoning continents of South America, Africa, and of course our own Asia.
This welcome growth was made possible through concerted efforts by both the government and the private sector, which again proves itself instrumental in advancing the country’s development, towards diversifying our RMG products and reducing dependency on the bigger, more traditional destinations.
However, we cannot interpret this one pleasant turn of events as a signal for complacency, treating it instead like a beacon of inspiration. There is no reason for that number to not be 35% or even 75%. More can, and needs, to be done. With the right amount of collaborative effort, we can easily have the image of our country’s RMG sector experience a drastic, positive turnaround.
