Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment exporting country. But business was badly hit due to the devaluation of euro and shutdowns and blockades. Because of these factors, the garment sector may fail to attain its export target of 33.2 billion dollars in the outgoing fiscal year.

Bangladesh has duty- and quota-free access to many countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Norway, China, India, Canada and the EU. Steps have already been taken for product and market diversification in Latin America and preferential trade agreements have been signed with Brazil, Argentina and Chile to boost exports of Bangladeshi products.

There is a proposal to increase tax at source for the export sector from 0.30 per cent to one per cent for 2015-16. But the industry says, tax at source on export of garments should be reduced to a tolerable level from the proposed one per cent and that instead a high duty should be imposed on imports to protect industries. Considering the current purchasing power parity, Bangladesh hopes to become a mid-income country by 2021.

The government has also been urged to give more attention to prospective sectors like furniture, jute, shipbuilding and pharmaceuticals and give cash incentives to help them flourish.