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Introduction:
Introduction:
Bangladesh, the southern Asian
country has a population of approximately 164 million people. The economy of
Bangladesh is significantly dependent on agriculture. But its a great news for
the country that, readymade garments (RMG) sector of Bangladesh has raised as
the biggest earner of foreign currency. This sector creates about 4.2 million
employment opportunities and contributes significantly to the GDP. Readymade
garments (RMG) of Bangladesh are powered by young, urbanizing, workers, where
most of them are women.
History
of RMG Sector in Bangladesh:
The foundation of textile
sector was first established in the 60th decade of 19th century. For the first
time, the industry exported shirts (Mercury shirt) to the European market in
1965-66, which was produced from Karachi. In the latter, 9 exporting industries
were available in 1977-78. The three largest industries in that time were Riaz
Garments, Jewel Garments and Paris Garments. Among those, Riaz Garments was the
most famous and oldest industry in that time.
In the earlier stage, Riaz
Garments of Mohammad Reaz Uddin started its business with some tailoring shop
in the name of Riaz store. In the later, the name turned into Riaz Garments
from Riaz store in 1973 and from 1978 the company started exporting products in
the abroad by exporting 1 million pieces of shirts in the South Korean Company
named “Olanda”. “Desh Garments” is another pioneer of Bangladesh RMG sector.
By following the beginners of
RMG sector, some others discreet and hard-working entrepreneurs started their
RMG business in the country. From there, RMG sector of Bangladesh was
developing day by day and not needed to look back. Though this sector had
passed various critical stages through the path. In that time, we learned about
child labour 1994 and in 1995 we made our garments industry free from child
labour very successfully.
Present
Situation of RMG Sector in Bangladesh:
In RMG sector of Bangladesh,
there are more than 5000 garment factories (private statistics) at the current
time, employing more than 12 lack labours, where 85% of the labour force is
women. But, according to BGMEA the number of garment factories in Bangladesh
around 4000. Now, RMG industry is the countries largest export earner with the
value of over $24.49bn of exports in the last financial year.
It’s great news for us that,
Bangladesh is clearly ahead from other South Asian suppliers in terms of
capacity of the readymade garments industry. Though, there are various types of
garments are manufactured in Bangladesh, but all the readymade garments are
classified into two broad categories, where one is woven products and another
one is knitted products. Woven products include Shirts, Pants and Trousers. On
the other hand, knitted product includes T-Shirts, Polo Shirts, Undergarments,
Socks, Stockings and Sweaters. Woven garments still dominate the export
earnings of the country. From BGMEA website it’s seen that, Day by day knitted
items production is increasing in considerable rate and now about 40% export
earnings has achieved from knitted products.
Quota system was a great blessing for establishing our
garments industry. We were strongly benefited by using that. As a result we can
see a matured garments industry today. But while quota system was approaching
to an end in 2004, there’s so many got upset about the RMG sector of
Bangladesh. Though in the latter it can’t be affected here as the experts were
seemed. We conquered the post quota challenges and made that a successful
story.
Contribution
of RMG Sector to the National Economy:
The role RMG sector in Bangladesh economy is remarkable.
It’s seen that, from the last decade, RMG sector contributes to the national
economy in considerable rate. About 76% of total export earnings come from RMG
sector.
From a statistics it’s known
that, in FY 2003-04 RMG sector of Bangladesh earned US$ 5,686.06 million, in FY
2004-05 the value was US$ 6,417.67.67 million, in FY 2005-06 the value was US$
7900.80 million, in FY 2006-07 the value was US$ 9,211.23 million, in FY
2007-08 the value was US$ 10,699.80 million, in FY 2008-09 the value was US$
12.35 billion and finally in FY 2013-14 the value stands at
$24.49billion.Contribution of RMG sector to the National Economy.
Opportunity
of RMG Sector in Bangladesh:
RMG sector of Bangladesh has
some key factors which inspired for steady growth of this sector. Though it’s a
matter of great surprising for so many that how RMG sector of Bangladesh
continues to show its robust performance in the world.
The main key factors which have
great influence on RMG sector of Bangladesh are in the following:
1. Vast labor force,
2. Skilled human resources,
3. Technological upgrades,
4. Government supports for textile and clothing,
5. Special economic/export processing zones,
6. Creation of textile and clothing villages,
7. Incentive for use of local inputs,
8. Duty reduction for the import of inputs/machines,
9. Income tax reduction,
10. And international supports like GSP, GSP+, duty free
access etc.
Challenges
for RMG Sector of Bangladesh:
Though RMG sector of Bangladesh
has achieved the second spot for the highest number of garments exporter, but
it has a lot of problems. The major problems faced by RMG sector currently is
the lack of safety in working place and working conditions for the millions of
garments workers. It’s become a great challenge for the upcoming financial year
of Bangladesh. Another important one is political stability.
Two major incidents in RMG
sector of Bangladesh are the Tazreen fire and the Rana Plaza collapse, which
have brought the issue of workplace safety to the fore and led all stakeholders
to act accordingly. But it’s good news for RMG sector that, following the
unfortunate incidents, various platforms such as the Bangladesh Accord on Fire
and Building Safety, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and National
Plan of Action have been formed to improve building and fire safety of
Bangladesh’s garment industry. Also BGMEA and BKMEA are working together here
to solve such kinds of problems. They have also taken necessary actions and
invested huge amount of money.
We hope, the government of
Bangladesh, BGMEA and BKMEA, with the support of global brands and
international development partners, will be able to ensure the safety of the
RMG industry and maintain the momentum of socio-economic development in the
country. Political stability creates a negative impact on RMG sector of
Bangladesh. If it continues, it will be a massive blow to destroy our most
valuable sector. So, political leaders should come out immediately to solve
such kinds of problems.
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Hoping
for RMG Sector of Bangladesh:
According to the McKinsey
survey, it’s seen that 86 percent of the chief purchasing officers in leading
apparel companies in Europe and the United States planned to decrease levels of
sourcing in China over the next five years because of declining profit margins
and capacity constraints.
Also they said in that survey,
“Western buyers are evaluating a considerable number of sourcing options in the
Far East and Southeast Asia, many chief purchasing officers said in the survey
that they view Bangladesh as the next hot spot”. Many chief purchasing officers
mentioned Bangladesh as the hot spot in the readymade garments market. Hoping
for RMG sector of Bangladesh
McKinsey survey also reported
that, with about $15 billion in exports in 2010, ready-made garments are the
country’s most important industrial sector; which represents 13% and more than
75% of GDP and total exports, respectively.
McKinsey forecasts,
export-value growth of 7 to 9% annually within the next ten years, so the
market will double by 2015 and nearly triple by 2020.
Conclusion:
It’s a prime duty for us to
provide a perfect working place for the readymade garments sector of Bangladesh
which has given our economy a strong footing, created jobs for millions of
people, especially for women, lifted them from the abyss of chronic poverty and
given them a magnificent life. Now what we have needed to do is dealing with
all the challenges facing our readymade garments industry, paving the way for
its further development.
This
report is prepared on “Pattern Making activities and production development of
readymade garments.” This is an important sector in Readymade Garments
Industry.
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