Bangladesh will raise cash incentives for readymade garment exporters from three to four per cent for markets other than the US, Canada, and the European Union. New export markets, also called non-traditional markets, contributed 15.26 per cent to Bangladesh’s total apparel exports in the last fiscal year. The European Union contributed 64.12 per cent, the US 17.48 per cent, and Canada 3.15 per cent.

Non-traditional export markets for Bangladesh’s garment sector include: China, Russia, Japan, India, South Africa, Australia, Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, South Korea, Malaysia, and New Zealand. And among these Japan, China, and India are potential markets for Bangladesh. In financial year 2017-18, Bangladesh’s earnings from exporting apparel products to non-traditional markets rose 9.92 per cent.

As a new market, Japan is showing a lot of potential for Bangladeshi apparel goods. In the last fiscal, garment exports to Japan from Bangladesh rose 13.73 per cent compared to the previous year’s earnings. In fiscal ’18 Bangladesh’s readymade garment exports to India rose 115 per cent compared to the previous year.

The search for new markets has been prompted by the realization that increasing production by itself cannot increase export earnings and that markets would have to be diversified.