Better competitiveness boost BD apparel orders, soar investment

Industry Desk: Apparel competitors like India, China and Sri Lanka are losing price competitiveness to Bangladesh resulted boost in buying orders from Europe, USA and Russia.
Fresh apparel orders rose by 20 to 25 per cent this year on the back of the reopening of stores of retailers and brands in Europe and the US after longe closure and shutdown during pandemic.
Besides, Bangladesh has attracted more than $21.17 billion worth of investment proposals in the last two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics, which showed the country received $2.5 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in fiscal 2020-2021 and $2.37 billion in FDI in 2019-20.
A variety of factors have contributed to Bangladesh recent trade performance. Bangladesh has cost advantages (example, power costs 30 to 40 percent less in Bangladesh than it does India, China) and Availability of free or preferential trade agreements with key importers, such as EU, UK and Canada for apparel.
Trade experts said to scale up business effectively and operate profitably, Bangladesh must take necessary steps to not only boost factor cost competitiveness but also to optimize service levels, adopt digitization, build design capabilities and invest in sustainability & traceability to enhance global competitiveness.