Hasina asks knit makers to scope out new markets
Star Business Report

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked business leaders to explore new markets for Bangladesh knitwear goods in Middle Eastern and African countries besides Western nations. Explaining her recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Hasina said the countries such as UAE, Bahrain, Jordan and some African countries could be the new destinations for Bangladesh knitwear, BSS reports. Hasina expressed her views in a meeting with a 26-member delegation of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) at the Prime Minister's Office. The prime minister said her government always encourages the development of industries, trade and commerce, as country's economic progress could not be ensured without it. The knitwear makers yesterday demanded that the government give 10 percent financial assistance to the sector against export performance to make it more competitive in times of global recession. The association president, Fazlul Hoque, who led the delegation to the meeting said Bangladesh scores third in global knitwear exports, as the sector registered a 52.02 percent rise in exports in the first three months of the current fiscal year. "But growth declined to 4.73 percent in the October-December period and further down to 2.56 percent in February due to the recession," Hoque said. Bangladesh earned $3.804 billion from exports against the $6.584 billion target for the July-January period of the current fiscal year, registering 26.17 percent growth. The total export earnings from the knitwear sector were $5.533 billion last fiscal year, the meeting was told. The issuance of utilisation declaration from BKMEA shows that knitwear exports would experience a 15 percent decline in the three months from April, compared with the same period of the last fiscal year, Hoque told the meeting. The BKMEA also demanded bank loan rescheduling and cuts in bank interest rates for knitwear makers as some production units have already been closed and some factories are running at marginal profit due to the recession. At the meeting, Hoque urged Hasina to approve the plots in Dhaka and Narayanganj to construct offices for BKMEA. The knitwear makers also urged the government to help establish a 'knit village' and support infrastructure development in the BSCIC industrial plots in Narayanganj.