Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau (BEPB) has updated country's export earning on an upbeat note. It has a clear pattern to it rather than a patchy score-card of spurts here and there. That should make the combined task of consolidation, sustenance and progress that much easier.
The other way of looking at it would be to recognise a strong bias to traditional export basket underlining the long-felt need for diversification, both in terms of merchandise spread and finding new markets.
During the first half of fiscal 2017-2018, export earning increased by 7.15 per cent compared with 4.44 per cent in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. In December last alone, export earning chalked up about $3.35 billion ($335.31 crore) notching an increase by 8.42 per cent over the same month in the year before.
A strong showing has been posted in the export of readymade garments, jute and jute goods, frozen food, home textiles, etc. But the growth in the second biggest sector, viz., leather declined, even though earning from footwear and other leather goods marked an uptrend.
Lion's share of the earning - 82 per cent - came from readymade garments. Mahmud Hassan Khan, vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), while recognising the uptick tended to reckon that the figures for the year before last were better than the present rate of RMG export growth. According to his assessment, the next six months will see a good run of the business. But he sounded a cautionary note adding that the fiscal 2018-19 would be challenging given that it would be an election year. And, he noted that the new pay structure will be implemented for garment sector.
In view of such an unfolding scenario, a consultative process should be had among all stakeholders in order that the positive trend for export growth is not impaired in any way. For, the strengthening of democracy, political stability and providing remunerative wages to garment workers are in the best interest of national economy which deserves primacy to move to the next higher stage. There is another reason why - the upset trading order with ruptured economic blocs calls for careful footfalls on the changing parameters of trading relations and practices. We must optimise the dividends from our recgnised trade partners; and having secured the familiar territory move for newer pastures by retooling our strategy to suit the demand side.
Here is a case in point: In the current fiscal year, export of knit products like vests or undergarment increased by 11 per cent to $7.60 billion; on the other hand, growth in export of woven items was limited to 4.0 per cent accounting for $7.18 billion. The reason for this contrasting performance between knit and woven categories lay in the circumscribed lead time for the export. As a matter of fact, 50 per cent of woven export is dependent on imports. And, it's common knowledge that congestion of ships at the port wipes out any competitive lead time aside from the cost premium.
The turn-around in the jute sector is highly encouraging, the export earning increasing by 21 per cent to $570 million reflecting a mini resurrection of a sector thought to have been past its prime.
Home textiles showed a growth of 16 per cent and the overall export of agriculture commodities rose by 8.0 per cent.
The highly promising pharmaceutical sector, declared as the merchandise of the year by the prime minister, has chalked a growth of 12 per cent. Now, the sector awaits incentivisation to scale the new height it can with all its untapped potential.
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