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RMG contributions to national exports rise

Refayet Ullah Mirdha
The contribution of readymade garment products to national export increased by 1.02 percentage points in the immediate past fiscal year compared with the previous fiscal year, data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) showed.
In fiscal 2010-11, the contribution of RMG (woven and knitwear) to national export was 78.14 percent or $17.91 billion compared with 77.12 percent or $12.50 billion in fiscal 2009-10, according to the EPB.
In the just concluded fiscal year, the country earned $22.93 billion from exports backed by $17.91 billion from the garment sector, the data showed.
Of the RMG products, the contribution of knitwear was worth $9.49 billion, or 41.37 percent, while woven products earned $8.43 billion contributing 36.79 percent to the total export in fiscal 2010-11, according to EPB data.
In fiscal 2009-10, knitwear contributed 40.01 percent or $6.49 billion and woven 37.11 percent or $6.01 billion to the total export. In 2008-09, the share of knitwear was 41.30 percent and that of woven was38.02 percent.
If home textile, terry towel and specialised textile were included in the RMG sector, the share of the sector in the total export would cross 80 percent in fiscal 2010-11, exporters said.
In 2010-11, earnings from home textile export were worth $788.76 million, while terry towel earned $120 million, according to the EPB.
However, jute and jute goods also contributed signif-icantiy to the national export in 2010-11, crossing the
one billion mark for the first time.
Monoj Kumar Roy, joint secretary (export) to the commerce ministry, said the overall export is increasing as almost every sector is performing well.
"The contribution of the RMG products is increasing significantly, whereas the export of other products is also picking up due to diversification,” he said. Previously, other sectors were not performing as per expectation due to a lack of diversification, he added.
Abdullah Al-Mahmud Mahin, managing director of Mahin Group, a local garment giant, said RMG export rose due to the relaxation of the Rules of Origin (RoO) in the EU under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) from January 1 this year.
“There is an increased pressure of orders from international buyers for higher cost of production in China and Vietnam. The added advantage for Bangladesh is that it mainly produces basic garment, which its competitors don't,” Mahin said. He said many entrepreneurs are now expanding their pro-
duction capacity seeing a bright future.
Faruque Hassan, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said export of RMG products increased due to price hike of per unit of garments following the rise in prices of raw materials like cotton and yarn last year.
Moreover, Bangladesh performed well in exporting to new destinations such as Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Turkey and Latin American countries, he stud.
“A lot of orders for basic garments are shifting to Bangladesh from other countries,” he said.