Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association on Saturday sought policy support from the government for the apparel sector, which it said was facing a plethora of challenges, including price hike of raw materials and high rate of interest on bank loan.

The BGMEA president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin at a press meet at the association office described the current situation of the garment sector and their expectation from the government.

Mohiuddin said, ‘Although the garment sector posted a 42.30 per cent export growth in July-April of the current fiscal year, the import cost of cotton, yarn, synthetic fibre, and textile increased by 75.18 per cent in the July-March period.’

The BGMEA president said, ‘The entrepreneurs have to borrow money from the banks at high interest rates ranging from 15 to 18 per cent to meet the extra cost of import. Besides, the Bangladesh Bank for the past five to six months has been taking as much as two months to disburse loans sought by the entrepreneurs from the Exporters’ Development Fund.’

He said the country’s garment products were loosing both price and competitiveness as the buyers had gone for tougher bargaining with us and placed orders for much lower quantity of products in the February-March period compared to that in the corresponding period of 2010.

‘In the meantime, China, India, and Pakistan have been attracting the foreign buyers by reducing the price of their stockpiled cotton and textile. India has already bagged 15 per cent more orders from the buyers this year compared to that in the last year,’ Mohiuddin said.

The BGMEA chief called on the government to give preferential treatment to the export-oriented and labour-intensive industries, specially the garments industry, in the forthcoming national budget.

Mohiuddin requested the government to disburse the 5 per cent incentive to the small and medium enterprises against their export price as promised earlier. He also demanded withdrawal of the condition that the SMEs using generators would have to give 10 per cent rebate on their electricity bills.

The BGMEA president stressed designing a coordinated package for human resources development, food rationing, and dormitory and health services for the workers in the garment sector.

BGMEA first vice president Nasir Uddin Chowdhury and vice president Faruqe Ahmed also spoke in the meeting.