Bangladesh will focus on certain garment products for value addition and exports. The global market size for these products is $132 billion and Bangladesh earned $7.16 billion by exporting them in 2018. Among these are: women’s briefs, panties, blouses, men’s underpants, coats, trousers, T-shirts, stockings, socks and other hosiery.

These products are either made of cotton where Bangladesh has an edge or non-cotton having features similar to traditional products. These products are relatively easy to manufacture so the cost of making them would not be too high. The aim is to help the sector diversify and reduce its dependence on a few products and progress upmarket.

About 73 per cent of Bangladesh’s total readymade garment export earnings in the last fiscal year was from T-shirts, sweaters, trousers, jackets and shirts. Bangladesh lost 1.61 per cent off the unit value of readymade garment products on the global market in the last four years.

Future expansion will be in non-cotton, women’s/girls’ clothing and outerwear/athleisure. It is important for Bangladesh to consider more investments in primary textiles, especially in the woven and non-cotton sectors, as the preferential regime by the EU for middle-income countries require a double transformation process as per its GSP rules of origin.