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INTERVIEW

RMG holds out bright hope

Outgoing BGMEA president speaks to ®wMi>>r

Repayet Ullah Miudua
A strong chance stays yet to materialise the dream of exporting readymade garment (RMG) worth $25 billion within 2013 from the existing $11.70 billion if the sector is given proper and timely policy support and financial aid from the government side.
It may sound ambitious to many in the time of tumultuous global economy that has already affected many of the export destinations of Bangladeshi products.
But Anwar-UI - A I am Chowdhury Parvez, the outgoing president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), holds out the hope deep in heart.
He describes the ways and means how the dream can come true.
In an interview with The Daily Star, Parvez, who completed his two-year tenure (2007-08) as the BGMEA skipper, says Bangladesh has a lot of opportunities in global apparel trade although major competitors like China, India and Pakistan are facing the recession ordeals.
"Every crisis is an opportunity. The risk of global recession has brought the opportunities for Bangladesh. All the stakeholders including manufacturers and exporters, tire government, workers and trade unions should come forward to exploit the opportunities," Parvez says.
But, the sector needs government back-up for extracting the opportunities from the recession, otherwise there is a chance of losing the existing markets as the competing countries have already taken a lot of safeguard measures, he says.
Parvez, who is scheduled to hand over the BGMEA presidency
to Abdus Salam Murshcdy on March 12, says the positive leader-ship both by the manufacturers and the government is very impor-tant during such a crucial moment.
"I hope the new BGMEA leadership in collaboration with the government would utilise the opportunity that has been created for Bangladesh stemming from the global recession," the outgoing leader says.
He says the government should move fast in giving the financial packages to the manufacturers and exporters, as any further delay may demoralise the businessmen.
Parvez also talked about infrastructure and skill development, labour issue, developing fashion and design, creating mid-level management, improving productivity, reducing bank interest rate and developing marketing strategies and negotiation skill in price fixation with the foreign buyers.
He particularly stresses infrastructure development to sustain the industrial and manufacturing growth of the country.
The government should ensure smooth supply of electricity and gas to the industrial plants and development of transportation especially the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, he suggests.
Increasing efficiency of the country's prime Chittagong Port is a major task for maintaining a higher export growth, he says, calling for developing new alternativeportsoon.
Parvez says BGMEA has so far taken over the charge of 31 govern-ment-owned training centres across the country to train new workers for the garment sector, which has at least 25 percent shortage of skilled workers.
"I hope at least 17,000 trained workers would come out from
such training centres every year to man the garment sector," he says.
Parvez, owner of Evince Group, says more than 300,000 new workers entered the garment sector last year and the total number of workers is now 2.8 million.
He says the training centres also organise seminars and workshops for the mid-level managers of different factories to enhance their negotiation capacity with workers, buyers and other managements.
Bangladesh needs not only skilled workers but skilled designers also, as the next business of
garment would be the business of fashion design and brands, he says.
"This is why the students' enrolment in BGMEA Institute of Fashion Technology should be increased to produce more skilled hands for fashion design," Parvez says.
He says since almost all the economies of the world are driving on a bumpy road, the new BGMEA management should tackle the issue of labour unrest very efficiently, otherwise the country may lose in competitiveness.
The owners of the garment
units should work closely with the workers and trade unions so any kind of problem could be resolved immediately through negotiation.’
He says buyers are now offering at least 17 percent reduced prices due to the recession.
"At this time improving productivity and looking for new export destinations is a must for the countries like Bangladesh," he says.
About the backward linkage industries, Parvez says the woven manufacturers need to buy fabrics from countries like China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Italy and other EU countries as the local backward industries can contribute only 30 percent.
But for the knitwear sub-sector the backward integration can contribute more than 80 percent now, he adds.
He calls upon the government to address the issue of reducing bank interest rate so the investors can set up new industrial plants with ease.
"The interest rate at 18 percent is really very high for establishing industrial plants in this competitive age, Parvez says.
He says the government must improve the activities of missions abroad as the international trade is largely dependent on effective economic diplomacy with the competing countries.
He urges the government to open permanent display centres of major Bangladeshi exportable products in the foreign missions so the buyers can easily choose the items and make business deals easily.
He says export of garment items would rise significantly from April as the buyers are placing orders for winter collection.
reefat@thedailystar.net