According to latest official figures, Bangladesh’s apparel export will predictably cross this fiscal year’s target as the earning is already more than $25bn with one month left before another year begins. The target was set at $27.37bn for the FY2015-16 after earning $25.49bn in last fiscal. After Rana Plaza tragedy in 2013, observers prophesied that the country’s biggest export industry might face severe image crisis and suffer loss of global market share. But it has continued to shine ever since as a lot of investment has been made to improve factories’ safety standards with the help of its Western retailers.

This demonstrates in the sector’s nearly 9.44 per cent growth to reach $25.08bn in first 11 months of the current fiscal year. RMG makers believe improvement of safety standards and progress of remediation work in factories has helped to restore buyers’ confidence. Now if the RMG wants to further accelerate the growth in the years to come, experts think focus should be given on productivity, manufacturing medium and higher-end products and exploring markets other than traditional ones.

According to provisional data of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), of the total amount earned in last 11 months, woven products fetched $13.16bn with a 12 per cent growth and knitwear products $11.92bn with 6.74 per cent from the same period last year.