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Introduction
Garments industry is the largest export industry for our country and it
contributes 75% of total export. The industry is associated with its
strength, weakness, threat and opportunity.
In this study an attempt has been made to describe the overall scenario
of Bangladesh Ready Made Garments industry. At this time of free
economy everyone may be interested to know about the largest export
industry and the mechanism of doing business here. The present study
has been undertaken with consideration of this fact.
Objectives of the study
Primary Objective
Secondary Objective
In order to reach the broad objective, some specific objectives are identified.
1. To know the different aspect of garments industry, its prospects, and problems.
2. To show some statistics of RMG industry.
3. To analyze the statistical data related to RMG industry
Methodology
Sources of data
Data regarding the completion of this report are collected from both primary and
secondary sources.
Primary source:
Secondary sources:
Year Issue
Currently, there are more than 4,000 RMG firms in Bangladesh. More
than 95 per cent of those firms are locally owned with the exception of a
few foreign firms located in export processing zones (Gonzales, 2002).
The RMG firms are located mainly in three main cities: the capital city
Dhaka, the port city Chittagong and the industrial city Narayangonj.
Bangladesh RMG firms vary in size. Based on Bangladesh Garment
Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) data, Mainuddin
(2000) found that in 1997 more than 75 per cent of the firms employed a
maximum of 400 employees each. Garment companies in Bangladesh
form formal or informal groups. The grouping helps to share
manufacturing activities, to diversify risks; horizontal as well as vertical
coordination can be easily found in such group activities. Ready-made
garments manufactured in Bangladesh are divided mainly into two broad
categories: woven and knit products. Shirts, T-shirts and trousers are the
main woven products and undergarments, socks, stockings, T-shirts,
sweaters and other casual and soft garments are the main knit products.
Woven garment products still dominate the garment export earnings of
the country. The share of knit garment products has been increasing
since the early 1990s; such products currently account for more than 40
per cent of the country’s total RMG export earnings (BGMEA website).
Although various types of garments are manufactured in the country,
only a few categories, such as shirts, T-shirts, trousers, jackets and
sweaters, constitute the major production-share (BGMEA website; and
Nath, 2001). Economies of scale for large-scale production and export-
quota holdings in the corresponding categories are the principal reasons
for such a narrow product concentration.
Foreign buyers are concerned about the different compliance of the law.
So, they were bothered about the child labor issue of Bangladesh. But
later on this problem is the salute and now garments are restricted to
employ child labor. In 2005 the quota facilities for Bangladesh was
withdrawn. Everybody thought it would be a great shock for garments
industry. But in reality, Bangladesh has faced this challenge with great
courage. The fact is that the export of garments product has increased
after the withdrawn of this quota. And the last two years were really good
time for the garment industry. The political situation was stable under the
country’s state of emergency and this boost the growth of the industry.
Bangladesh garments industry has just woke up one morning and find
itself a matured one. If we follow DS reports on the conditions of
Bangladesh garments industries, we may as well have the same idea.
Until 1/11/2007, as per some media, everything was a mess. Now a day,
while teachers and lawyers can’t hold elections, garments industries
owners hold elections under direct government patronage. And DS must
also speak well of the teammates. Maturation of a large industry like
RMG sector in Bangladesh is not an overnight phenomenon. The
industry was trying to be in a matured stage from last ten years but the
unrest political situation was the main obstacle. Bangladesh’s garments
exports have experienced a boom from the last two years because of a
stable business climate under the country’s state of emergency. The
nation’s exports of knitted and woven items rose by nearly 17 percent to
a record 10.7 billion dollars in the financial year to June 2008. And now
the industry is at the matured stage.
Strength
Weakness
Opportunity
Threat
The RMG industry of Bangladesh fully depends on the export. The major
importer of RMG products is USA and Europe. But there is other country
that has a contribution to the total RMG export. The following table
contains the list of major importer of our RMG products.
Belgium 3812.00
Canada 6218.00
France 13078.00
Germany 27008.00
India 80.00
Italy 22.00
Netherlands 10619.00
Sweden 3058.00
Turkey 2681.00
U.K. 15411.00
U.S.A 43368.00
Contribution to Economy
One of the key advantages of the RMG industry is its cheap labor force,
which provides a competitive edge over its competitors. The sector has
created employment opportunities for about two million people of which
70 percent are women who mostly come from rural areas. Thus the
industry helps in the country’s social development, women
empowerment and poverty alleviation. Currently RMG earns the lion’s
share of foreign exchange earnings.
The Bangladesh RMG industry, with its woven and knit sub-components,
is a pre-dominantly export oriented sector, with 95 per cent of the woven
and 90 per cent of the knit exports being directed to foreign markets. The
cumulative foreign currency earnings by the sector, since 1978, when
first export was registered, is estimated at 70.56 billion US dollars.
Bangladesh’s RMG export earning stood at 9.21 billion US dollars in
FY2007. In 2007 this sector contributed 75.64% of the total Bangladesh
export of 12.78 billion dollars in the same year. RMG export in FY2007
was equivalent to 13.25% of Bangladesh’s GDP over the corresponding
year. At present the local value addition by the RMG sector is estimated
to be 45%. Accordingly, local value addition by the sector in 2007 was
about 4.15 billion US dollars which was equivalent to 5.96% of GDP for
the same year. The value addition created by the sector itself is
estimated at 25% of total RMG export earnings which amounted to about
2.30 billion dollars or equivalent to 3.32% of GDP [ Appendix Table-4].
As Percentage of GDP
Macro Contribution of RMG Sector RMG Amount
Earnings
(billion US$)
Total RMG Exports 9.21 13.25%
Local Value Retention 4.15 5.96%
Direct Value-Addition by RMG Sector 2.30 3.32%
RMG sector is one of the major employers in the economy. Around three
million people are employed in RMG industry and about 70 per cent of
which are women. As a matter of fact in the 1990s a large part of the
incremental labor force in the manufacturing sector was absorbed by the
RMG sector. The RMG workers received USD 315.25 million as their
wage in FY 2007. This purchasing power contributed significantly to the
growth of the economy through its multiplier impact in terms of
consumption expenditure and savings.
The RMG sector has also contributed to the growth of the country’s
insurance sector. On average, every year the premium paid by the RMG
sector to the insurance companies was about 6 million dollars. All firms
have their machines and plants insured and, additionally, 87% of
importers of input and 15% of the RMG exporters get their
imports/exports insured.
Transport Communication
Professional Services
Engineering Sector
The RMG industry paid 28.55 million dollars to the engineering sector
which included payments to repairing and maintenance service industry
(USD 8.29 million), electrical engineering (USD 9.21 million), transport
vehicle maintenance service ( USD 5.53 Million), and machine tools
service (USD 5.52 Million).
Utility Services
Real Estate
The RMG sector also plays a catalytic role in the growth of the country’s
ICT sector. The services consumed by the RMG industry generated
revenue for the ICT sector. Payments for ICT services which include
communication, hardware and software services are estimated at 19.34
million dollars in FY 2007.
The 2.2 million workers in the industry have created a large demand for
consumer goods. A regular source of earning increases the basic
consumption needs such as improved diet, better healthcare,
improvements in family utensils and housing conditions etc. The sector
has created an increasing demand for consumption of low cost
commodities, cosmetics items, dresses, footwear, fast food and other
products. A whole industry has been created to service this growing
demand and created employment opportunities for hundreds of
thousands of people.
Women Empowerment
Savings
Child Labor
Many of the retrenched child workers have been placed in schools and
are receiving a monthly stipend. Football manufacturing industry of
Pakistan has been following the globally acclaimed BGMEA Model of
Child Labor Elimination. BGMEA has so far spent over 600,000 US
dollars for the project. Successfully addressing of this issue has created
a very favorable image about Bangladesh abroad and has promised
continued market access for the sector.
Population Control
Employment opportunities especially for women created positive impact
on family planning and population control in the country. Independent
working-women are getting more conscious about the advantage of a
small family, and are exposed to modern family planning methods.
Working adolescent girls tend to avoid early marriage as they have their
own source of income and are self-dependent. The mean age at
marriage for girls working in RMG factories tend to be higher than the
national average.
“It is heartbreaking that year after year women and men are killed while
making clothes for stores in our communities,” said Ineke Zeldenrust of
the Clean Clothes Campaign International Secretariat, an international
network that for years has highlighted the safety risks plaguing the
Bangladesh garment industry.
Just days after the KTS fire, 19 people were reported dead and 50
injured when a five-story building collapsed in Bangladesh’s capital city
of Dhaka. The Phoenix Building in the Tejgaon industrial area collapsed
following unauthorized renovations to convert the upper stories of the
building that housed various offices and factories, including a garment
factory, into a 500-bed private hospital. One hundred fifty construction
workers and an as yet unreported number of garment workers were
reportedly in the building Saturday morning when it collapsed. Rescue
operations, hampered by lack of equipment, are still underway, as many
are feared to be trapped under tons of concrete rubble. Hundreds of
activists from workers’ rights groups marched through Dhaka on
Saturday demanding compensation for the victims families and
punishment for the factory owners. Police have reportedly been
searching for the building’s owner Deen Mohammad, also chairman of
the City Bank of Bangladesh, but have been unable to locate him.
Phoenix Garments exports clothing mainly to Europe.
To face the upcoming challenges in RMG sector, the country should take
the following measures:
Despite many difficulties faced by the RMG industry over the past years,
it continued to show its robust performance and competitive strength.
The resilience and bold trend in this MFA phase-out period partly reflects
the imposition of ‘safeguard quotas’ by US and similar restrictions by EU
administration on China up to 2008, which has been the largest supplier
of textiles and apparel to USA. Other factors like price competitiveness,
enhanced GSP facility, market and product diversification, cheap labor,
increased backward integration, high level of investment, and
government support are among the key factors that helped the country
to continue the momentum in export earnings in the apparel sector.
Some of these elements are reviewed below.
Market Diversification
Bangladeshi RMG products are mainly destined to the US and EU. Back
in 1996-97, Bangladesh was the 7th and 5th largest apparel exporter to
the USA and European Union respectively. The industry was successful
in exploring the opportunities in markets away from EU and US. In FY06,
a successful turnaround was observed in exports to third countries,
which having a negative growth in FY05 rose three-fold in FY06, which
helped to record 23.1 percent overall export growth in the RMG sector. It
is anticipated that the trend of market diversification will continue and
this will help to maintain the growth momentum of export earnings. At the
same time a recent WTO review points out that Bangladesh has not
been able to exploit fully the duty free access to EU that it enjoys. While
this is pointed out to be due to stringent rules of origin (ROO) criteria, the
relative stagnation in exports to EU requires further analysis.
Product Diversification
The growth pattern of RMG exports can be categorized into two distinct
phases. During the initial phase it was the woven category, which
contributed the most. Second phase is the emergence of knitwear
products that powered the recent double digit (year-on-year) growth
starting in FY04.
Backward Integration
Flow of Investment
Lead Time
Infrastructural Impediments
Labor Productivity
Garments worker raise their voice in different times to attain their rights.
From analyzing different news it can be viewed that the bursting riots of
2006 has not created in a day. There is a long way behind this and a lot
of reasons. In July 4, 2001 the national strike took place throughout the
garment industry. The strike, planned months in advance, was called by
the NGWF and six other union federations. The garment workers called
the strike across the country demanding implementation of their six point
charter. At least 17 garment factories were damaged in the city by
elements hired by some owners, alleged the striking workers. Police
arrested 13 garment workers from Mohakhali area for their alleged
involvement in demanding the factories.
Then Government took some initiatives to sort out the problem and
made some promise about the demand to the garments worker. As a
result the garments sector became stable again. But the demand was
not fulfilled. The worker’s demand for wage was not fulfilled. So the
protest started again.
Around 2.2 million people are employed in the garments sector and
around 70% of whom is woman. From the beginning of the industry the
rights of the worker is violating. The workers wage was determined as Tk
930 for a new worker in 1994. And this rate was continued till 2006. The
other facilities like safety, healthy working environment, security etc.
were not provided to the worker. The reason behind the riot can be listed
as below.
1. A new wage structure for the garment workers on the basis of a basic
minimum wage of tk 3000 (unskilled).
2. Ensure the health and safety of garment workers.
3. Necessary steps for the development and expansion of the garment
industry and its markets.
4. Implementation of trade union rights in the garment sector. Trade union
rights for the EPZ workers.
5. Separate industrial zones for the garments industry. Settlements,
schools and hospitals in the zones.
6. Implementation of the Memorandum of Agreement signed between the
MGMEA and the BGWUC in 1997 and 2000 (appointment letter, identity
card, service book, weekly holiday, maternity leave, etc.)
The ongoing financial crisis has not affect the Bangladesh Garments
Industry at a large extent till now. But no one no what will happen. And
there is a controversy about the future effect of this financial crisis on
RMG sector. Some argues that it will affect the industry in a positive
manner. The arguments behind this is that the western buyers are
cutting their prices because of the financial crisis but China and other
garment manufacturing countries can’t afford the price cut, but
Bangladesh can because our labors are cheaper and they can work
overtime.
But many exporters are really worried about the effect of financial crisis
on this sector. The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers Association
(BKMEA) reported a ten per cent drop in knitted items such as T-shirts
and pullovers. Buyers are now renegotiating prices and delaying orders
citing the ongoing financial turmoil.
It’s true some of the top retailers are downsizing their inventories due to
the crisis. But Bangladeshi exporters have to be careful. If they can
make shipment timely and keep the quality intact, global financial crisis
will not affect the RMG sector of Bangladesh.
Table- 6: RMG export growth and percentage as the total export (In
million US$)
Total
This table reveals the RMG export from the initial stage of the industry till
2007 and its contribution to total export. The RMG sector enjoys a
continuous growth from the beginning of the industry but the initial level
was tough. From the last ten years it is viewed that RMG export is
contributing 75% of the total export. The following graph can give clear
view of growth in RMG export for the last 10 years.
Findings