Global clothing brands think Bangladesh’s ready-to-wear exports could reach $100bn within 10 years

Bangladesh has the potential to reach $100 billion in annual readymade garments exports in the next 10 years, Ziaur Rahman, H&M Group’s regional director for Bangladesh, Pakistan and Ethiopia, said at the two-day Sustainable Apparel Forum 2022 in Dhaka on Tuesday. Bangladesh is one of the main sourcing locations for H&M Group’s ready-to-wear garments, accounting for about 11-12% of its total outsourced demand. Ziaur Rahman says Bangladesh’s economy is doing well and H&M is buying readymade garments from 300 factories in Bangladesh. Shafiur Rahman, regional operations manager for G-Star RAW, a Netherlands-based denim company, said the company buys about $70 million worth of denim from Bangladesh, about 10 percent of its global total. G-star RAW plans to buy up to $90 million worth of denim from Bangladesh. Garment exports for the first 10 months of the 2021-2022 fiscal year rose to $35.36 billion, 36 percent higher than the same period of the previous fiscal year and 22 percent higher than the projected target for the current fiscal year, Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data showed.