No fresh investment in woven textiles in last four years

Woven textile industry has failed to grow in the country as there was no fresh investment in this sector in the last four years, mainly because of EU's introduction of 'single stage' rule, sources said.
Data shows that local textile industry capable of meeting the entire woven textile need yet still here in the exporters continue to remain dependent on imported fabrics for 70 per cent of their requirement.
The local woven textile producers are currently meeting only 30 per cent fabric demand of the RMG exporters. Still 70 per cent market is dominated by imported fabrics, industry sources said.
Earlier, during the EU-provided 'two-stage transformation processes - local fabric and local cutting and manufacturing - there was a boom in textile sector.
After the introduction of the 'single stage' process - local cutting and manufacturing and fabric sourced from anywhere, reportedly at the insistence of a certain country - investments stagnated, a textile industry source said.
He pointed out that due to low lead-time and quality of local woven fabrics the RMG exporters prefer local products. They also have the option to change in case of defects.
A Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) leader said, "We did not register any fresh investment in woven fabrics in the last four years."
He said despite having the opportunity of investment in textile manufacture the investors are not coming up also due to crisis of power, land and high bank loan rates.
A Board of Investment (BoI) source said there were proposals for direct investments in woven fabrics but the investors finally went away for land crisis.
A knitwear manufacturing sector source said though currently almost cent per cent knit fabrics are sourced locally but in woven it is still not more than 30 per cent.
An RMG exporter said, "It is our pride that we use our local fabrics. We are free to import fabrics from abroad, but we prefer to source them from here to encourage local backward linkage."
According to market study woven fabrics required for RMG export are being imported from India, China and other countries.
The market data also says, as China is focusing their attention on manufacturing high-end products. So availability of low-end woven fabrics from China would be reduced and Bangladesh can grab this opportunity.