The visiting fashion retailers of China on Saturday said there was a scope of doing business of billion of dollars between Bangladesh and China.
Feng Dehu, vice-president of China National Garment Association, at a press conference said that the China retailers had started to build up their relationship with the garment sector of Bangladesh and they (retailers) had a long-term plan to do business with the country.
The press conference was organised by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to brief the media about the outcome of the visit of a 21-member Chinese business delegation.
Dehu said that they had visited nine factories including oven, knit, sweater and home textile and they were very much impressed as all of the factories had been maintaining high quality of products and good workplace.
The business delegation from China arrived in Dhaka on Thursday to explore possibility of sourcing from Bangladesh.
Dehu who led the delegation said that the opportunity for the Bangladeshi RMG was immense and most of the China retailers became interested to import from Bangladesh.
The yearly turnover of the retailers, who became interested to import from Bangladesh, is $3.5 billion, he said.
Dehu said, ‘Yearly RMG export of China is $160 billion and the domestic consumption is $310 billion.’
BGMEA president Md Atiqul Islam said, ‘China is a potential market for Bangladesh as the competitiveness of Chinese apparel industry is eroding because of rising wages and overall production cost there.’
‘If we can make sincere effort and use the duty-free market access opportunities, the scenario of the garment industry of Bangladesh will be changed,’ he said.
Atiqul said that the visit of the China delegation was very much significant for the industry as the garment sector was passing through a crucial time due to two tragic incidents and the ongoing political turmoil.
The apparel sector leaders of Bangladesh and China inked a memorandum of understanding to increase trade and expertise support.
-With New Age input
