RMG exporters should focus on ‘Made in Bangladesh’ brand: Webinar

Bangladesh secures the crown of being the second largest readymade garment exporter in its 40-year journey but the manufacturers could not instil confidence in the minds of the buyers, a study says.

To earn the international partners’ trust, the study recommended building more complaint factories and focusing on developing the “Made in Bangladesh” brand.

Speakers on a webinar on “Feasibility study on scaling up the production of Technical Textile including personal protective equipment (PPE)” organised jointly by GIZ, GFA, and BGMEA on Tuesday said demands for technical textile and PPEs will expand substantially in the post-Covid world.

However, as an exporting nation, Bangladesh has to grab the potential foreign market. But, it remains a beginner when it comes to shipping technical textiles.

The keynote presenter, Charles Dagher, recommended five strategies of which branding and building trust is crucial. The other strategies are: implementing the lean manufacturing practice, ensuring transfer of management and technical skills, building the collaborative infrastructure for the supply chain and creating effective coordination and support policies.

He said Bangladesh must address issues such as lack of awareness about market requirements, inadequate technical expertise, difficulty in sourcing high-performance raw materials, compliance and certification requirements, and need for capital investment.

“This is a new market and we don’t have the proper knowledge about the medical equipment but to enter the market we have to make a road map”, said Faruque Hasan, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

The study unveils a list of critical gaps, lack of collaboration in the industry, low international recognition, lack of marketing intelligence and branding, lack of awareness of key players about the sector, lack of certification of raw and processed material, uncontrolled unit cost, lead time negative impact, slow customs clearance and other procedures.

the country has challenges in entering into the market in educational training and institute, product development capabilities, backward linkage, lack of making the demand projection, capacity for PPE product, said the study.

Werner Lange, Textile Cluster Coordinator, GIZ BD, moderated the programme.