Mostafiz Uddin

There has been a healthy debate as to whether Bangladesh should open up Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the apparel sector where, until now, the majority of investors are local entrepreneurs, with the exception of some foreign companies who have invested in garment businesses inside the Export Processing Zones (EPZs).

I read an interesting article the other day about a cotton spinning company based in Manchester, England. Although the company, by Bangladesh's standards, produces high volumes of product, it has established a niche for itself in the UK and Japan with customers who appreciate both quality and locality of resource.

The government of Bangladesh has recently formed a new wage board for the readymade garment (RMG) industry where 4.4 million workers are currently employed. There are around 45 industrial sectors in our country, each with its own set minimum wage. This means that there is no national minimum wage.

Whenever there is a discussion about trade, investments, exports and economic growth, quite often much focus is placed upon infrastructure as the core challenge of our export growth. But is it the only hurdle?

As global brands transcend borders by inspiring and engaging consumers through innovation and investors with the promise of higher turnover, sometimes rivalling that of some developing countries, it is no longer a question of how to compete with another nation.

The World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a recent conference that about two thirds of jobs in the developing world may be lost due to automation.

Bangladesh plans to increase its apparel export to the global market with a high ambition of reaching the USD 50-billion mark by

China remains the undisputed global giant in the textile and apparel industry. Its share of global apparel export is about 37 percent while the share of Bangladesh, the second largest readymade garment exporter in the world, is only about 6 percent.