Apparel exporters put high hope on South Africa

It is possible to increase exports Bangladeshi apparels to South Africa from $43 million to half a billion within two to three years subject to government efforts, said the president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
   ‘A $500 million worth market for made-in-Bangladesh apparels is very much possible in South Africa in just two or three years,’ Fazlul Hoque told a group of reporters after returning from a fact finding and market promotion tour to South Africa and neighboring Botswana.
   He said the government should play a vital role in expanding country’s export market in South Africa by pursuing duty reduction for Bangladeshi cloths, as Bangladesh belongs to least developed countries.
Currently, South African importers require paying around 60 per cent duties and sales taxes on apparels. The BKMEA president said that as an LDC Bangladesh government could urge the South African government for reducing tax incidence.
‘If Bangladeshi exporters get half of the existing duty relieved, they can corner all other Asian competitors,’ he said.
Referring a top government official of the textile department of the South African government, Hoque said that South Africa might provide privileged duty access to those Bangladesh-made garments, which are not widely produced by local manufacturers.
He said Bangladesh registered export growth of 71 per cent to South Africa in last fiscal year that ended in June.
At present, China acquires more than two thirds of the South African market for imported apparels that is worth $1.2 billion annually. Bangladesh ranks fourth after Mauritius and India.
‘The real potential is that South Africa’s apparel imports are growing over 25 per cent annually and Bangladesh’s growth is the highest among the top suppliers,’ the BKMEA president said.
The BKMEA market promotion delegation met top executives of leading clothing retailers including Woolworths, Truworths and Edgars, individual businessmen, chamber leaders and the government executives.
‘They [Africans] don’t have wide knowledge about the capacity of Bangladesh’s apparel industry,’ Hoque said. ‘But, almost everyone there showed eagerness in Bangladeshi products and pointed out huge untapped potentials.’
Not only for apparels, he said markets for other Bangladeshi products and services in Southern Africa remain unexplored.
Hoque informed that currently some 80,000 Bangladeshis reside in South Africa and several thousands of them are involved in grocery business. ‘South Africa could be a happy home for thousands of more Bangladeshi engineers, IT professionals and even unskilled workers.’
South African officials and businessmen had told them that they could invest in power and other sectors in Bangladesh, he said.

Courtesy of NewAgebd