Bangladesh exports break new ground

It took Bangladesh 19 years, since its independence in 1971 to become a $100 billion economy. The government hopes our economy will expand to $500 billion in the next fiscal year. The export sector has played a pivotal role in this achievement.

There has been an exponential growth in the export sector defying all odds and in the just concluded month of November Bangladesh exported a record $5 billion worth of goods in one month. Incidentally in November 2021, Bangladesh earned $4.04 billion through exports. A recent TBP report, quoting Export Promotion Bureau Vice-Chairman and CEO AHM Ahsan, stated that product diversification, approaching non-traditional markets and shipping of the deferred goods to the buyers have helped Bangladesh reach this milestone.

What makes the feat all the more remarkable is the fact it was achieved at a time the world is facing a unprecedented financial downward trend with most of the export destination countries facing record high inflation.

Export remains the driving force of the economy of a country, helping to earn the much needed foreign currency to pay for the imports of essential commodities like industrial machinery and raw materials, life-saving drugs and medicine etc. When we look at the history of the newly born country of Bangladesh, we see that the journey of the nascent country began with a meager amount of foreign currency in the public exchequer in 1972.

Gradually, over the years, with the inclusion of many different traditional and no-traditional items in the basket, the export earnings began to increase slowly but steadily. Through the efforts undertaken by the private sector business community our products began to reach many new export destinations. Conducive government policy and support of the financial institutes played a significant role in making it possible.

Some of the major export items from Bangladesh include: Ready-made garments & knitwear, home textile products, leather and leather goods, jute and jute products, light engineering and electronic products, agricultural products, fish and shrimps, ceramic wares, pharmaceuticals, toiletries and cosmetics, software and ICT products, ships and vessels. Besides, traditional handicrafts made of cloth, jute, wood and clay also enjoy good demand in some overseas markets.  

As the government moves ahead with plans and aspirations to transform Bangladesh into the “Golden Bengal” envisioned by the father of the nation and establish a developed and prosperous country by 2041, it has to continue providing policy and other required supports to businesses to widen the export basket and expand the destinations. It must also ensure smoother delivery of imported goods and finished products without hassle to ensure shipments are within the lead time.

The upward trend of exports should be given full support by all stakeholders so that we can earn more foreign currency in the near future. Product quality improvement is another factor exporters will have to think seriously to stay in the global competition.

While the impressive growth in export is indeed positive news it should be tempered with the fact that Bangladesh’s economy is heavily dependent on imports. From the point of view of managing the country’s overall external account, large gains made in exports does not mean much imports outweigh them. Because at the end of the day the country has to pay more foreign exchange on its trade account than whatever it receives. We believe that solution lies in producing more value-added, thus pricier export products so that even a small growth in exports can lead to big value gains.

As stated earlier for boosting exports, identification of potential markets, developing new lines of products, focusing on existing markets and existing products, improvement in manufacturing processes to produce quality products and acquiring the leverage for charging a higher average per unit price — all matter.

Bangladesh can do this but a mechanism needs to be developed to seek greater input from provincial governments and the private sector representatives in the framing of trade policies.