Refayet Ullah Mirdha

With a slump in demand for commodities among the Western consumers, Bangladesh needs to remodel its business plans to revive exports in the time of Covid-19, which has severely affected the global economy, economists said.

Maybe the traditional fast fashion garment items or basic apparel products are not adequate for Bangladesh to remain competitive in the global markets, they said.

Bangladesh needs to grab new markets for supplying products like personal protective equipment (PPE), masks and healthcare-related items such as bed sheets and isolation sheets for hospitals.

As the pandemic has created a market of billions of dollars for these products worldwide, the local exporters need to utilise this opportunity for the revival of export earnings, the experts said.

Earnings from merchandise exports in the immediate past fiscal year fell 16.93 per cent year-on-year to $33.67 billion because of Covid-19, which has affected production and dampened demand.

The receipts from exports in fiscal 2019-20 is 25.99 per cent below the annual target at $45.50 billion, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

The export earnings in fiscal 2018-19 were recorded at $40.53 billion.