REJAUL KARIM BYRON and REFAYET ULLAH MIRDHA

Bangladesh aims to increase its merchandise and service exports by about 12.74 percent year-on-year to $57.5 billion in the fiscal year 2024-25, according to Finance and Commerce Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed.

Ahmed announced the new target during a press briefing at the commerce ministry in Dhaka yesterday.

Merchandise and service exports are expected to see year-on-year growth of 12.35 percent and 15.38 percent respectively to reach $50 billion and $7.5 billion apiece, according to commerce ministry data.

An official of the commerce ministry, seeking anonymity, said that the interim government considered the ongoing unrest in the garments industry, flooding in parts of the country and international crises when fixing the export target.

The government is also monitoring both the domestic and international economic landscape, and believes the target is achievable in these circumstances, the official said.

The official expects that business confidence will soon bounce back amid the current regime change that began when the Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina was ousted by a mass uprising on August 5.

Khandoker Rafiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said this year’s export target is not unrealistic.

“But the logistics, port and transportation services alongside energy supply must be very smooth to achieve this goal,” he added.

Islam also said that above all, political stability as well as the law-and-order situation must be improved to restore the confidence of investors, entrepreneurs and all others concerned.

MA Razzaque, chairman of the Research and Policy Integration for Development, echoed the same.

“This target is very realistic,” he said, citing how the projected 12.74 percent export growth is achievable considering how low last year’s receipts were.

“Export growth is usually higher following a year of low achievement. So, the new target is realistic and achievable even though the export trend is sluggish right now,” Razzaque added.

However, he further said there is a supply side challenge for Bangladesh due to the labour unrest and other issues.

But if those issues are addressed, then the target should be quite achievable, Razzaque added.

Md Anwar Hossain, vice-chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), said they, alongside the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Bangladesh Bank, will provide real-time export data to avoid errors.

Also, the NBR, the central bank and EPB will revise the export data every three months starting from October this year to ensure accurate reporting.

The move comes on the back of a recent incident, where there was a massive data mismatch in the EPB due to the double entry of export data by the customs department of the NBR.

From now, export data will be released with the coordination of all agencies concerned, said Finance and Commerce Adviser Ahmed.

Regarding their aims to increase exports, he said the government will remove anti-export barriers and review tax related export challenges.

The interim government will also work to diversify the country’s export basket, Ahmed added.

Asked about the revival of the Generalised System of Preferences to the US, he said discussions are underway to this end and the American government remains positive in this regard.