Bangladesh needs additional investments in the export-oriented garment sector to reduce its dependence on imported fabrics. Domestic textile millers can supply four billion meters of fabrics, so Bangladesh imports six billion meters of fabrics from China and three billion meters from India.

Currently, Bangladesh’s textile millers can meet 85 per cent of the demand from the knitwear sector and 35 per cent from the woven sector. At least another 20 big textile mills have to be built which can supply quality fabrics to the garment exporters. Right now quality fabric is being supplied but in insufficient amounts.

However, there are difficulties in attracting fresh investments in the sector. Among these are high interest rates and scarcity of industrial land. Gas connections and effluent treatment plants are needed. Bangladesh needs to improve the capacity of its primary textile sector. Increased supply of local raw materials also decreases the lead time, which is very important in the competitive apparel business. The primary textile sector needs to be able to add more value in the garment sector, which typically rakes in more than 82 per cent of the export receipts in a year. Bangladesh wants to targets $50 billion in garment export receipts by 2021.