Govt sets target of $1.0 billion exports to France

FE Team | Published: October 29, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Naim-Ul-Karim
The government expects to record exports worth $1.0 billion (100 crore) to France this fiscal, mainly thanks to readymade garments (RMG), frozen foods, knit wear, home textile and leather, sources said.
"We are gearing up our commercial wing at Bangladesh mission in France to extend all out cooperation to exporters in their efforts to boost trade as the government has set a target to export products worth $1.0 billion to that country in the ongoing 2007-08 fiscal," a senior official of the Ministry of Commerce told the FE Sunday.
The country earned more than $753 million from exports to France in the 2006-07 fiscal.
Sources said the Bangladesh mission in France has already been informed about the target and told to put tireless efforts to increase the volume of exports to that country.
Officials of Bangladesh missions abroad have been made more responsible assigning them with the task of exploring export markets abroad for boosting the external trade, they said.
Because of these efforts and deepening bilateral relations with France, Bangladesh expects a robust growth in export orders from that country in the current fiscal.
Sources also said the Ministry of Commerce is closely monitoring performance of all the Bangladeshi missions abroad to pave the way for achievement of the country's overall export target set for the current fiscal.
The government has set the country's export target for the ongoing fiscal year at $14.50 billion, 19.07 per cent up from that of the previous fiscal.
The country recorded export earnings of $12.18 billion against the target of $12.5 billion in the 2006-07 fiscal.
When asked, sources said in the first quarter of the current fiscal, Bangladesh exported products worth $ 200 million to France against the target of about $250 million.
"We are optimistic to recover the shortfall in the ongoing second quarter as exports are expected to mark a rise," a senior ministry official said.
When asked whether the scheduled withdrawal of the safeguard measure on import of Chinese textile by the end of this year will pose any threat to the country's export surge in the EU countries including France, sources said this is unlikely to affect business in the current fiscal.
"We are receiving bulk orders for supplying products now, which will be materialised by the end of the fiscal," he said.
However, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Belgium and Denmark are the major importing countries of Bangladeshi products among the member states of the European Union.
If the export target of $1.0 billion is achieved, sources said, France will be the third largest destination for exports from Bangladesh after Germany and the UK among the EU member states.