“Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions- Why am I doing it, what the results might be and will I be successful? Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.”
—Chanakya, the ancient Indian teacher, philosopher, economist, jurist and royal advisor (350 BCE – 275 BCE)
The country, Bangladesh got the most awaited independence on 1971 under the dynamic geopolitical leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and through blood-spattered sacrifices of 3 million pure souls, with a view to breaking the multi-dimensional chains of exploitations insisted by the rulers of East Pakistan at that time, which was mainly compelled into the vein of Bangladeshis by the Vasha Andolon of 1952, a crucial movement, through what Bangladeshi people first started realizing the identity ‘Being Bangali’. After nine months, when it ended on 16th December, 1971, the economy of newborn country- Bangladesh was left prostrate; fate had been mudded down and most of the economic and physical assets were shattered or in bad condition. In the opinion of Choudhry and Basher (2002), the direct and indirect costs due to the massive destruction were US$ 9.53 billion and US$14.08 billion respectively. But yes, the objective of independent Bangladesh was very clear to achieve sustainable development by ensuring uplifted living standard of all citizens irrespective of ethnicity, race and religion.Bangladesh is now recognized as miraculous country at international arena and referred as exemplary for encouraging least developed countries globally, as if according to the World Bank on 1972, following year after achieving independence it had Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$ 6.29 billion, and on 2016 it encompasses GDP of US$ 221.415 billion, that means within four decades, GDP grew almost 35.20 times. In addition, Bangladesh has exported US$ 34.84 billion worldwide at the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016-17, where Ready-Made Garments Industry of Bangladesh comprises 80.60%, in monetary terms the export was US$ 28.15 billion. More specifically export of Knitwear Sector has exceeded US$ 13.75 billion comprising 39.47 per cent of the total export. That means, RMG sector is a strategic and commercially beneficial sector to Bangladesh which is always in the challenge to cope up with changing international market.
Doing business and earning foreign currencies through growing export is becoming harder for Bangladeshi RMG entrepreneurs not only for internal detrimental factors, such as recent price hike in gas price; which is quite enough to make RMG manufacturers and exporters out of the world competition, but also for anti-tidal external factors such as getting lower price that is lack in assurance of fair prices from buyers of major RMG trading partner countries even after meeting all the social compliance, sustainability issues, however, during January-July, 2015, price for RMG products has fallen by 2.45 per cent imported by USA buyers from Bangladesh and by 1.41 per cent imported by EU buyers, while to meet up infrastructural upgrade, fire safety and electrical-electronics safety to the international standard, every factory is getting bound automatically to spend Taka 50 million to Taka 200 million, perhaps this huge amount seems to be in risk if those internal and external detrimental issues are not sorted out as soon as early, as if there is another major geopolitical issue which was perceived earlier to go in favor of countries like Bangladesh but in reality is going against of the commercial interest of Bangladesh, that is- Regional Trade Agreements; which have become progressively rampant since the early 1990s. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), till 7th April 2015, counting services, accession and goods discretely 612 notifications of RTAs has been received by the WTO/GATT and of these, 406 are in force. These WTO figures correspond to 449 physical RTAs (counting goods, services and accessions together), of which 262 are currently in force. As if Bangladesh could not make any RTA with its major RMG trading partners yet so that the sector is losing the competitiveness at greater extent only due to artificial matters created externally.
However, for negotiating in the efficient way regarding RMG business nationally and internationally, from entrepreneur to national diplomatic level, for grabbing the diversified world market and to adopt with current market situation, it is the foremost necessity of time to have the proper information about international buyers and tariff-nontariff barriers imposed by different countries or custom unions, unless which RMG export earnings may not grow as expected by 2021 to US$ 50 billion, set by the present government under ‘Vision 2021’. Hopefully, The Global Market Information for Business Development (GMIBD) will work as complementary directory for entrepreneurs to search new potential buyers from emerging trading partners of Bangladesh, will facilitate RMG manufacturers and exporters to bind buyers to pay fair price, aware of import duties imposed by different countries and to know more about potential markets, surely that will also enable governmental bodies to initiate FTA/RTA alike free trading arena which will be commercially beneficial for Bangladesh, as if all these related information are gathered here in single publication.
As Chanakya, the ancient Indian teacher, philosopher, economist, jurist and royal advisor (350 BCE – 275 BCE) has remarkably said that there should be a satisfactory purpose of doing something to be successful; henceforth The GMIBD delivers the updated symmetric information which reveals the multi-dimensional spaces being a key factor to the higher GDP growth thus sustainable development.
Honorable Commerce Minister of Bangladesh Tofail Ahmed, MP formally unwraps the “Global Buyers’ Information Directory” by BKMEA
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The book can be sourced from BKMEA offices at Narayanganj, Dhaka & Chittagong. For more information about the book, one can contact at– +88-01913390313, +88-01914390304, +88-01914330565, +88-01819172864 or email at– sonia@bkmea.com, bkmea@bangla.net or fair@bkmea.com