The government aims to attain a 15% growth on the export earnings of last fiscal year to materialize its vision of export earnings worth $60 billion by 2021.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said on Tuesday while briefing journalists at his secretariat on export performance in the just concluded fiscal year. Commerce Secretary Md Mofizul Islam was present at the press conference.
In the fiscal year 2018-19, Bangladesh’s overall merchandise export earnings registered a 10.55% growth to $40.53 billion, which was $36.66 billion in the previous year, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data show.
Meanwhile, export earnings from goods and services stood at $46.37 billion, posting a 13.06% growth on the previous year earnings.
“In the last fiscal, we were able to cross the export target of $39 billion, earning 4$40.53 billion. By 2021, Bangladesh wants to exports goods worth $60 billion, of which $50 billion would come from apparel sector,” Tipu Munshi projected.
"Bangladesh is marching forward to this direction but it needs more speed. If we can attain a 15% growth on the exports earnings of the previous year, we will be able to reach the target," he hoped.
Though the government is hoping a better performance in the current fiscal year, major big export earners including leathers, jute, and frozen and live fish sector registered negative growth.
Explaining the negative growth of leather sector export earnings, the minister said that the sector suffered due to relocation of tanneries to Savar Industrial Leather Park and delayed implementation of CETP.
The minister, however, expressed hope that the sector would turn around as the government was working to complete CETP and other unfinished work.
On market diversification, the minister said government took a good number of initiatives and it already negotiated with Russia about starting financial transaction through banking channel as it was a big market for Bangladeshi products and prices were higher compared to other markets.
