Overall Problems and Prospects of Bangladeshi Ready-Made Garments Industries

Abstract

Bangladeshi Garment Industry is the largest industrial sector of the country. Though the history of Readymade Garment Industry is not older one but Bangladeshi clothing business has a golden history. Probably it started from the Mughal age in the Indian subcontinent through Dhakai Musline. It had global reputation as well as demandable market around the globe especially in the European market. After industrial revolution in the west they were busy with technological advancement & started outsourcing of ready made garments to meet up their daily demands. Many LDC's took that chance & started ready made garment export at that markets. As an LDC Bangladesh took this chance enjoyed quota & other facilities of them. Thus ready made garment industry started to contribute in our economy from late eighties (1977). The history of the garment industry dates back to 1977 when the first consignment was exported to then West Germany by Jewel Garments. The number of units, however, remained a meager 46 until the end of 1983. From a humble beginning the sector has thus made phenomenal growth over the last two decades, the number of units growing to around 4500. The RMG industry achievement is noteworthy, particularly for a country plagued with poor resource endowments and adverse conditions for industrialization. Exports increased from approximately 32 million US dollars in 1983/84 to 1.4 billion dollars in 1992/93. In 1987/88, the RMG export share surpassed that of raw jute and allied products. The figure further rose to 5.7 billion dollars in 2003/04, representing a contribution of about 75 percent of the country's total export earnings in that year. The employment generated by the sector is estimated to be around 1.5 million workers. Several factors account for the outstanding successes of the RMG industry in Bangladesh. At the same time this industry had faced & till facing many problems also. These problems & prospects of RMG industry in Bangladesh is my topic to find out as well as to make critical analysis on these. The importance of my study has been raised up by recent labor unrest in RMG sector. To analyze this board topic a took fulltime guidance from my dissertation guide Mr. A. K. M. Abduj Jaher in preparing questionnaire, operating field survey, presenting the survey report as well as constructing the report as a whole. So I am grateful to him. Here I use data from different sources like, BGMEA, BKMEA, CPD, World Bank, UNDP, Lmd Journal Published by Australian National University, CIA Report, ADB, Bureau of Economic Research - University of Dhaka, The University of Chicago Press & many other sources stated in reference section. Thus I am obliged to all of them at the same time I would like to offer my warm thanks to all of them. Many Garments owners, workers, & buyers have helped my by providing their valuable opinion on the topic or through interview. So I am grateful to them for helping me by providing primary data. Again I would like to offer my warm thanks to all of them for helping me a lot in construction of this dissertation report.