Recently, news had emanated of the Bangladesh garment industry overtaking India, in exports of apparels to the biggest market in the world; USA. More and more worldwide clothing buyers are heading towards the shores of Bangladesh, since it is able to manufacture apparels, competitive in pricing, than most other countries in Asia.
From August 2008 onwards, the exports from the RMG sector from Bangladesh have grown by a remarkable 10 percent, while that of India fell by 3 percent. The biggest advantage Bangladesh clothing manufacturers have vis-à-vis Indian manufacturers are the disparity in wages given to workers, due to which the sector in Bangladesh holds an edge.
In a recent exclusive interview given to fibre2fashion, Mr Surinder Anand, Executive Secretary of Garment Exporter's Association, listing out the advantages the Bangladesh exporters have over India, had said, “First and foremost is the lower manufacturing cost due to cheap labour and simplified labour laws”.
“Going further, economies of scale because of bigger and larger manufacturing units; availability of fabric at competitive rates, simplified procedures, labour laws are more flexible and conducive and last but not the least full support and blessings of their Government, while Indian conditions are discouraging to entrepreneurs”, he added by saying.
Even in these recessionary periods, most of the garment companies had been humming with winter clothing orders and except for may be a slight dip in orders; the Bangladeshi clothing manufacturers are comfortably placed versus their Asian counterparts and could be among the few countries that could be looking at a flat or marginal negative growth rate in 2009.
According to the statistics released by the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau, most of the sub-sectors like woven and knitted garment have crossed their targeted figures in the period July- December 2009. Knitted and woven garments grew by 2.16 and 2.45 percent respectively, textile fabrics by 8.16 percent and terry towels by 10.96 percent.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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