Bangladesh has edged past Mexico and Indonesia taking the third position in exporting apparels to the US market.

Until August 2010, the country was ranked fifth, trailing behind China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico.

In September, the country exported apparel products worth

$358 million, overtaking Mexico with $325 million in garment exports, said Bangladesh Embassy in Washington in a statement on Thursday.

The next month Bangladesh's export volume of clothing items reached $374 million which was higher than Indonesia's, said the com-merce wing of the embassy. Indonesia in October sold products worth $365 million to the world's largest economy.

Bangladesh exported about $1.44 billion worth of readymade garments to the USA between July and October in 2010, posting 20.37 percent growth on the corresponding period in 2009.

In terms of growth of garment exports, Bangladesh is just behind China with 21.15 percent growth, while ahead of Vietnam with 17.26 percent, Indonesia 16.17 percent, Mexico 3.49 percent and India with 13.25 percentgrowth.

If the same growth trend continues, the country will overtake Vietnam in the near future, said the embassy statement, calling for concerted efforts from all stakeholders and asking them to avoid labour related problems in the RMG sector.

In the first five months of the current fiscal year, the country's overseas apparel sales grew by 36.36 percent compared with the same period last fiscal year.

Knitwear exports were up by 36.56 percent to $3.6 billion, while exports of woven garments grew by 35.83 percent to $2.89 billion.

The RMG sector, which employs over 30 lakh workers, mostly women, has targeted to reach $20 billion export volume by the next three years from over $12 billion in the last fiscal year.