Bangladesh outpaced India in readymade garment (RMG) exports despite setbacks like a building collapse and a factory fire in the apparel sector, leading Indian newspapers reported Sunday.
Between January and October 2013, RMG shipments by India to the US market grew 6.3 per cent to US$ 3.2 billion while the same by Bangladesh jumped by 11.4 per cent to $ 4.9 billion, the reports said citing a study of the Exim Bank of India.
The leading Indian dailies carried the report of the Press Trust of India (PTI).
Though the latest data was not available, the US imports were a very good benchmark of understanding the latest trends. "Bangladesh has been aggressively pushing the garment exports and has made a slew of policy changes to facilitate those,"
Exim Bank Chief General Manager Prahalathan Iyer told the Indian news agency.
It said Bangladesh's apparel exports increased from $ 6.8 billion in 2005 to $ 19.9 billion in 2012, recording a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.6 per cent. During the same period, India's outward shipments rose from $ 8.7 billion to $ 13.8 billion, a CAGR of just 6.8 per cent.
Iyer and his colleagues conducted the study, which revealed that Bangladesh offered sops like uninterrupted power and a priority at the Chittagong port for shipment. "They have to take it very seriously as RMG export has contributed around 80 per cent of Bangladesh's total export earnings."
Asked if recent events like a spate of fires and collapse of garment factories, which led to some anxiety over safety standard at the units among the Western retailers sourcing goods from the country's eastern neighbour, was favourable for India, Iyer replied in the negative.
He said in October 2013, because of these incidents, there was a slowdown in Bangladeshi garment exports, which grew only 3 per cent. But initial trends pointed out a robust growth of over 41 per cent in November, suggesting the sector's healthy bounce bank.
The chief general manager of the premier export finance agency in India said many of the sourcing companies have South Asian offices situated in India, but they source garments from either Bangladesh or Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh's RMG industry had witnessed the country's worst ever industrial disaster on April 24 last year, when a nine-storied commercial building - Rana Plaza, which housed five apparel units, collapsed leaving at least 1128 people killed and hundreds of others critically wounded.
The incident had sent a shock wave to all including garment manufacturers and international buyers who expressed their fear repeatedly in the past of diverting their work orders elsewhere.
