Bangladesh’s garment industry has developed rapidly and is already an important part of exports. Hugo.com learned from foreign media reports that in 1984, Bangladesh’s clothing exports were only US$3.2 million, which increased to US$25 billion in 2014, accounting for more than three-quarters of export revenue.
In Bangladesh, the garment industry has always been an important driving force in promoting economic development and providing employment opportunities. The garment industry provides more than 4 million employment opportunities, 70% of which are women. More than 50% of the manufacturing workforce serves the garment industry, while the labor force in the manufacturing investment industry accounts for 30%. Therefore, the success of Bangladesh’s garment industry over the past two decades is a microcosm of the development of manufacturing.
There is no doubt that the development of Bangladesh’s garment industry has benefited from the country’s large number of cheap and poorly skilled labor. But its neighboring countries, such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and China, also have a large number of cheap labor with weak skills. Why can Bangladesh maintain its competitive advantage and continue export growth? In fact, Bangladesh’s garment industry is also facing Problems abound, such as the high cost of doing business, poor infrastructure, poor governance and Labor unrest, but local businesses are thriving.
Even if it develops well, it still faces compliance issues and work safety issues. Especially in the past few years, these two problems have become particularly prominent and have also come under international pressure, because if the above problems are not further improved, Western countries will cancel many favorable market policies. Compared with price advantage, quality advantage is getting more and more attention. The prominence of these issues is also an opportunity for Bangladesh. If properly resolved, it will improve its reputation in the international market.
Therefore, priority issues include: worker wages, workplace safety, fringe benefits, working environment, etc. In addition, the training of workers should also be strengthened to improve production capabilities by improving work skills. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the government and relevant international organizations should strengthen cooperation.
At present, Bangladesh’s garment industry is facing a bottleneck. How can it maintain its competitive advantage and continue its export myth? It is definitely not feasible according to the traditional method. In fact, Bangladesh’s core competitiveness is labor force, and this advantage is static of. As competition becomes increasingly fierce, Bangladesh should generate dynamic comparative advantages for its future sustainable development. It is necessary to enhance labor productivity by improving worker skills, introducing new technologies, encouraging innovation, and reducing operating costs.
Comparative advantage does not necessarily have to be converted into competitive advantage. Because in the context of high operating costs, if we want to maintain a competitive advantage, we must reduce workers’ wages and benefits. Therefore, in order to maintain the relative advantage of labor force, operating costs should be reduced as much as possible. The most prominent problem is the long lead time from order to delivery, which is exacerbated by inefficiencies in ports and inland transportation. In addition, lack of investment funds and working capital, high interest rates, poor infrastructure, poor security and high hidden costs of doing business are also factors that hinder the development of exports. These issues will determine the competitive advantage of Bangladesh’s garment industry and exports. These issues require strategic planning and flawless implementation.
The development of the garment industry is crucial to the future socio-economic development of Bangladesh. Therefore, academically there is no complete proof of the relationship between the development of garment exports and poverty alleviation. However, it can be seen from the data: with the growth of garment exports, the overall economy With development, the problem of poverty has been alleviated. Because the development of garment exports has created a large number of job opportunities, at the same time, whether the workers’ wages and welfare issues are resolved is also related to the development of the garment industry.
