The increasing numbers of international orders, boosted by ebbing worries on regulatory incompliance and a stable political front, promise a tempting 2015 for garment makers.

Favourable factory inspection reports by two retailers' groups --Accord and Alliance -- have shed some positive light on safety and labour standards, industry insiders said.

The Accord cleared more than 98 percent factories as safe in its report last September, which was a highly desirable achievement for the sector with horrible compliance track records leading to major losses of life and property.

"The inspection cleared the misconception on poor compliance by

the Bangladeshi garment sector. It boosted retailers' confidence in the sector," said Bakhtiar Uddin Ahmed, general manager at Fakir Apparels, a garment maker in Narayanganj.

“We are very hopefill for the year 2015, as we were quite busy in 2014 managing the disaster fallout of Tazreen Fashions fire and Rana Plaza building collapse."

The company targeted $88 million in exports for 2015, 20 percent higher than in the previous year. "Restoration of buyer confidence has proved to be a big factor for Bangladesh," Ahmed said.

The Accord and Alliance were formed by European and American retailers to work on fire and safety issues that plagued the garment industry in Bangladesh."Business will definitely increase in Bangladesh in the coming year. We have a lot of work orders from retailers," said David Hasanat, chairman of Viyellatex Group, a leadinggarment exporter.

However, the price per unit for garment items is not increasing, even falling in some cases, on different pretexts, Hasanat added.

"The year 2015 will be amazing for our company as five of our new projects will begin operations. Two additional projects are set to start production in early 2016," said MA Jabbar, managing director of DBL Group, another leading apparel company.

The company earned $175 million in 2014, and it will cross the $225 million mark in 2015, with additional business from the new projects, he said. DBL has 19 garment units now in operation.

"We completed a lot of preparatory work for the new ventures in the past year. We have a good relationship with our buyers and they are bringing in a higher volume of orders, especially after the inspections by Accord and Alliance," he said.

"But we need continued political stability for sustained business growth. ”

"We plan to further expand business in the near future, to keep up with increased work orders," he said.

Mondol Group's exports are set to cross $300 million in 2015 rising from $250 million a year ago, as the company expanded operations with facility modernisation, said Momin Mondol, managingdirector.

Recently, with higher demand from buyers, Mondol automated its sweater unit

to achieve higher production.

"The company has been maintaining 20 percent year-on-year export growth over the last four years and the trend will hold next yeartoo."

Despite last year's stability, challenges like an inadequate supply of gas and power to the industrial units and poor infrastructure still hold back the sector.

"If the sector wants to achieve the targeted $50 billion in garment exports by the end of 2021, the government must deal with these challenges as soon as possible," he said.

Orders that were lost to competition in India, Cambodia and Vietnam due to the stretched-out political tension of 2013 and early 2014 are coming back to the country with restoration of normalcy, Mondol said.

Apparel exports in the first six months of the new year might be a little slow, but it will pick up significantly from mid-2015 as buyers are showing positive signs, said Abdus Salam Murshedy, managing director of Envoy Group.

Slow business in the first half can be attributed to relocation of many factory units from Dhaka to other places, as well as some remedial measures being undertaken as per suggestions by Accord and Alliance, he said.

"But by the end of 2015, our garment exports will rebound significantly," said Murshedy, also former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Bangladesh exported $22.26 billion of garment products between January and November, according to data from Export Promotion Bureau.