Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association
  Home
  Message of President
  Bangladesh Profile
  Bangladesh At A Glance
  Business Opportunties
  BKMEA Profile
  BKMEA at a Glance
  Board of Directors
  BKMEA Official
  Industry Profile
  Facts & Figures
  History of Development
  Strength of Knitwear
  Contribution of Knitwear
  On Going Programs
  Partnership with GTZ
  BKMEA-EC Joint Initiative
  News & Events
  Up-coming Events
  Fairs
  Activities
  Publication
  News Letter
  Others
  Social Compliance
  iART
  Notice Board
  Useful Links
  Contact Us
 
  Message of President  
     
 
 

After winning the election of April 12, 2008, the present Board of Directors has taken the responsibility for the new term 2008-10. I have taken the charge as the President of the Association for the third time. In the next two years the challenge for me is to meet the expectation of the members as well as leading the sector one step forward in the international market.

BKMEA was formed in 1996 with a few members to promote the knitwear sector of Bangladesh. Meeting the challenge of time now it is one of the renowned organizations with 1400 member factories. Containing 20% commulative average growth rate 'Knitwear' is now the number one export earning sector in our country. In FY 2006-07 the export of knitwear earning was US$ 4553.60 Million which was 19.30% more than the previous year. If this sector gets government support properly we hope to export US$ 10 billion of knitwear products by the year 2010.

Md. Fazlul Hoque
President, BKMEA

 
 
              The facilities we need from government are:
 
 
  • 15% cash incentive in the direct export to facilitate the exporters. This is very urgent to face the hard competition with the neighboring countries in world market.
  • To remove complexities for issuing & renewal of bond license from National Board of Revenue (NBR).
  • To reduce unwanted delay and complexities in case of importing yarn using land port.
  • Continuous supply of power and gas.
  • Adequate loan facilities at low interest rate to facilitate setting up of new factories.

We hope that government will take proper steps for supporting the most potential and largest export earning sector of the country.

In the coming two years another challenge is to make the member factories socially more complaint. We have already achieved target to make the sector child labor free, compulsory group insurance for each factory and ensuring minimum wages for the workers. We have taken different projects with development partners to ensure other criterias to make the sector compliant. To guide the factories from our own effort we have established a compliance cell and made the monitoring system stronger.

BKMEA is putting diligent efforts to create new export arenas besides the existing ones. As a part of this we have arranged single country knitwear show in Canada on October 31 and November 1 of 2007. The objective behind this fair was to make acquainted the buyers of Canadian market with the quality and price of Bangladeshi knitwear. We are trying to arrange such market promotion activities in other potential markets of Bangladeshi Knitwear.

BKMEA establishes Institute of Apparel Research & Technology (iART) to serve the research needs of the Apparel and Textile industry in the international trade related issues, policy support and technological development to cope with the dynamic world scenario.

Knitwear sector is using modern machinery and latest technology. To enhance the productivity of this sector we have taken productivity improvement program and skill development trainings for the workers. Our productivity improvement cell (PIC) is working very well with their assignments in the member factories. We have established a training institute in Rangpur, a remote part of the country to train deprived people and supply them as skilled labor force in the apparel sector. Eventually it will help to remove poverty and unemployment problem of that area.

More than 1 million workers are employed in knit sector among which 70% are female. The growth of this sector directly influences the livelihood of the workers in this sector. We are committed to ensure safe working environment and other basic rights of the workers. Our target is to establish a strong position in the world knitwear market ensuring workers rights, quality of products and meeting lead time properly.

Md. Fazlul Hoque
President
BKMEA