The Apparel Digest Report
Bangladeshi people have huge hopes and live in a densely populated nation. Bangladesh has certain negative features. Many corruptions have shattered the established peace. Despite these challenges, Bangladesh is a wonderful location to visit. This country is establishing a reputation as a digital leader. The country excels in sports as well as other industries like agriculture and fisheries. Bangladesh’s textile sector is one of the most notable causes for the country’s rapid development. A total of $10 billion has been invested in this industry, with another $2 billion on the way.
In the past, the bulk of craftspeople worked in small groups. The bulk of subcontinental textiles are produced by cottage enterprises, sometimes known as tiny firms. Textiles were created by a large number of craftspeople throughout the subcontinent. This is where Bangladesh was supposed to be. In reality, from prehistory through the industrial revolution, East Bengal’s textile industry thrived in the eighteenth century. Muslin, Jamdani, and many varieties of cotton and silk textiles were manufactured by the locals. They were all well-liked outside of the fashion industry since they were all handcrafted by expert artisans and were one-of-a-kind in the region. During the seventeenth century, Bengali artisans began to face a scarcity of supplies, which sparked fierce rivalry.
Bangladesh’s textile industry was mostly a result of import substitution industrialization until its freedom in 1971. After Bangladesh’s freedom, export-oriented industrialization (EOI) began, focusing on the textile and apparel industries, particularly ready-made garments (RMGs). Tea and jute were the two most important export-oriented industries in Bangladesh soon after independence (1971). However, jute fiber prices fell and global demand fell precipitously, resulting in a drop in the industry.
The newly founded government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who also led the Awami League, established the Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC) as a state-owned business (SOE) in 1972. This resulted in the nationalization of privately held textile mills. President Rahman advocated for a socialist type of capitalism. Since 1975–1976, the BTMC has lost money in every fiscal year and has never been able to match its pre–1971 productivity. Up until the early 1980s, the government-held 85 percent of the textile industry’s assets in Bangladesh (excluding small firms). A considerable number of these assets, notably jute mills and textile mills, were privatized under the New Industrial Policy (NPI) in 1982.
As the world’s second-largest garment producer, Bangladesh has become one of the world’s biggest economies. Bangladesh exports all kinds of garments, second only to China. Made-to-measure garments are a new fashion trend that is taking the world by storm. In Bangladesh, they account for 20% of GDP. Bangladesh has gained a reputation as a successful RGM economy in the past seven years by earning annual revenue of almost $30 billion starting from $19 billion. This is a remarkable achievement, as 79% of the population has increased in less than 10 years. This is very impressive because they survived a very difficult time with many employees losing their jobs. Yet they gained a healthier and more secure working environment as a result of this accident. Their competitiveness soared in the manufacturing industry. Since the decade of the 2000s, Bangladesh has experienced explosive growth in its textile and apparel industry, making it the second-largest exporter of garments in the world. The country’s RMG sector, along with other clothing exports, accounts for up to 81% of its export earnings, and Bangladesh’s rapidly growing apparel industry is responsible for as much as 20% of the country’s GDP, more than any other industry. Clothing manufacturers in Bangladesh are leading the country’s economic growth.
The export industry in Bangladesh began during the 1980s, and it has been growing ever since. As mentioned earlier, the country’s apparel and textile exports had increased significantly by 2012. The Rana Plaza incident brought Bangladesh into the spotlight. In Dhaka, Rana Plaza, an eight-story garment shop, collapsed in April 2013. As a result of the accident, 1,100 people died and Bangladesh’s silently growing industry was brought into the spotlight. However, it caused the country to focus on safety measures and introduced the country as the cheapest manufacturer of garments. Workers in the Bangladeshi garment industry earn even less than their Chinese counterparts.
According to the details, custom clothing manufacturers should invest more in Bangladesh’s market to make the most profit. Consequently, Bangladesh’s exporting sector expanded. According to a report, 58% of Bangladeshi clothing ends up on European markets, while only 2% of the price is given back to the worker who made it. Bangladesh appears to be attracting manufacturers more and more for the simple reason that it doesn’t pay standard wages, it’s a booming economy, and energy is cheap. Despite the ongoing worldwide downturn and fierce competition from other nations with reliable reverse linkage enterprises, Bangladesh’s materials and apparel enterprises have successfully overcome difficulties. Recent logjams and cost decreases have affected giant trading nations like China and India. Economies such as Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Cambodia are going to experience a reduction in the price of materials, clothes, and apparel because of the financial crisis in the United States.
Bangladesh remains a surprising cost leader for material items. In the U.S. market, the prices of Bangladeshi attire and content items have been outperforming India’s prices. There are two main categories of readymade garments produced in Bangladesh: woven and weave items. Clothing woven items include shirts, jackets, trousers, and underwear; clothing items sewn items are underpants, socks, stockings, T-shirts, Polo-shirts, sweaters, and other delicate and easygoing items. Even though woven clothing items used to dominate the nation’s textile trade, the offer of sewn items of clothing has been expanding since the mid-1990s. Currently, weaving products account for around 52 percent of the nation’s all-around RMG revenue.
Trade versus aid has been discussed about Bangladesh’s textile industry. A much more effective form of assistance than foreign aid is to encourage Bangladesh’s garment industry as a free trade zone. Through WTO agreements such as both Textiles and Clothing (ATC) and Everything but Arms (EBA) as well as the Congressional assistance program for 2009 tariff reductions, Bangladesh’s ready-made garment (RMG) industry has benefited. Textiles accounted for 45% of all industrial employment in Bangladesh in 2012, yet contributed only 5% of the country’s national income. There has been criticism of the Bangladeshi textile industry and its buyers following several fires and collapses that resulted in the death of thousands of workers. The government must increase safety standards for workers due to concerns about potential safety violations. There is differentiation in the debate between some who argue that the textile industry is an important means of economic security for women and others who argue that women are more likely to be employed in the textile industry which contributes to disproportionate injuries among them. Even with measures taken to ensure better working conditions, many still contend more goes to be done. Chasing the growth, Bangladesh’s apparel-making sector – working with backwardly linked yarn and fabric factories – reached a new export peak worth US$30.61 billion in 2018.
Textiles and weaves are the two primary types of readymade clothes manufactured in Bangladesh. Shirts, coats, and trousers are the most common woven products, whereas undergarments, socks, stockings, polo shirts, sweaters, and other light and delicate things are the most common sewn items. Despite the fact that the income of the country’s peace of the clothing trade has been overtaken by woven pieces of clothing, the supply of sewn articles of clothing has been gradually increasing since the mid-1990s. RMG now sends out profits from weave goods that amount for approximately 52% of the total in the country.
Bangladesh, a country with a population of over 164.6 million people and abundant energy resources, is drawing numerous garment makers from across the world. It can accomplish objectives faster and at a reduced cost because of its huge workforce, which includes a larger percentage of women. Despite the fact that disasters like Rana Plaza have put doubt on the country’s reliability in terms of worker safety for some time, firms are now obtaining green construction licenses, as well as other security measures. It’s no surprise that manufacturers from all over the world are flocking to Bangladesh because of the country’s commitment and pro-manufacturing legislation.
