JICA finds jute products, software having most growth potentials

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Shakhawat Hossain
An international agency has identified jute products and computer software as two sectors having the most growth potential, while the country strives for export diversification, official sources said.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has identified the two out of six sectors selected on a preliminary through a study on "Potential Sub-sector Growth for Export Diversification in Bangladesh".
The other sectors are food processing, pharmaceuticals, light engineering and electric and electronic products.
It has conducted the study following a request of the government as the country is trying its best to help diversify its export basket, official sources said.
In comparison with the country's number of exportable goods of 25 and earnings thereof at US$ 348 million in 1972-73, the number of the products reached 176 and aggregate export receipts at $10.5 billion in fiscal 2005-06.
But the country is still dependent only on few export products like garments, frozen food, leather and leather goods.
The earning from readymade garment (RMG) export was US$ 8.9 billion or around 75 per cent of total export in fiscal 2005-06. It was followed by frozen foods that earned US$ 459 million in the same fiscal.
The selection of jute products as one of the two most potential sectors by the JICA, however, has not matched with the government priority list in the newly adopted export policy for 2006-09.
The new export policy has identified agro-products and agro-processing items, light engineering, footwears and leather goods, software and information technology and home textile and pharmaceutical products as thrust and potential sectors.
While announcing the new export policy recently, Finance and Planning Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam emphasised on the export diversification and urged the private sector to come forward to accomplishing the task.
In fiscal 2005-06, the country earned $361 million from the export of jute goods and $27 million from the computer software.
The JICA study team selected the sectors after threadbare discussions with all relevant stakeholders at a daylong workshop.
"It may deserve mentioning that the final selection of these two sectors was made on the basis of average score ranking by more than 40 participants of the workshop and 120 companies involved in these six sectors," said an Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) letter.
The letter sent to the commerce ministry also said the JICA will organise a daylong strategy workshop titled "Problem Analysis and Pilot project Formulation for Computer Software: Most Potential Sub-Sector for Diversification of Bangladesh Export".
The objectives of the pilot project are to enhance export competitiveness of computer software products in the international market, in particular and diversification of Bangladesh export, in general, which will be attained through implementation of a master plan.
The pilot project will involve a certain number of companies of this sector as the first beneficiaries, added the latter.