Govt selects 12 products as export potential to raise forex earnings

Badrul Ahsan The government has selected some 12 products as export potential to reduce reliance on a few selected items and to further boost country's foreign exchange earnings, a high official of EPB said. The selected items are: pharmaceuticals, printing materials, ship building, furniture, leather and leather products, agro processed food, luggage, toy, paper products, rubber, information and communication technology (ICT), electrical and home appliances. The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) had been tasked with the responsibility to work out a plan in this regard by the government earlier. The selected 12 items are now fetching less foreign currency but have a vast scope for export. According to the information of EPB, high-ups of the commerce ministry and EPB held a meeting on the issue recently and finalised its decision for an action plan soon to boost up the export of the new items across the globe. "The country has long been depending on a few items for its export earning which is really risky for any country. Any kind of international turmoil might impede the flow of the foreign currencies, so we have taken initiative to diversify country's export," EPB Vice-Chairman Shubhashish Bose told the FE. "The initiative would positively reduce reliance on the selected items and also boost foreign exchange earnings of the country. We have found huge prospects of export of the items across the world," the EPB vice chairman said. "We have almost completed preparing the action plan based on the past performance, production capacity and export prospects of the items," Mr Bose added. "At first we will help the entrepreneurs finding out new markets and would provide policy support. If we find incentive and other banking support are necessary for any sector's promotion, we will consider it later," he further added. Mr Bose, however, said, "We are hopeful of adding billions of US dollar to the national exchequer through exporting the selected goods if we could make success of the action plan on the issue." Presently, the country is mostly dependant on four to five items for export earning which contributes almost 90 per cent of total export earnings of the country. The products are readymade garment, jute and jute goods, frozen fish; home textile etc. The country has earned over $22.92 billion through exporting different goods to 189 countries of the globe in last fiscal year. Of the amount, 2.41 per cent came from leather and leather goods, 0.79 per cent from agro processed products, 0.18 per cent from vessels, 0.19 per cent from pharmaceuticals, 0.16 per cent from electric products, 0.18 per cent from computer service, 0.09 per cent from furniture, 0.11 per cent from paper and paper products, 0.01 per cent from printing materials, 0.24 per cent from bags and parts, 0.09 per cent from rubber. Bangladesh could not earn from export of toy though it has a big prospect in the world.