At a time agriculture was the main sector of the country's economy and tea and jute were the

main export items. Things have changed in the last 20-25 years and Bangladesh has switched to second gear from agricultural sector to manufacturing sector. Tea or jute is no more the main exportreadymade garments (RMG) has replaced them. About 3.0 million people are directly related while another 20 million people are indirectly involved in the RMG sector. According to a World Trade Organisation (WTO) report, Bangladesh ranked fourth in global apparel exports in 2007. In that same year the country exported more than $10 billion of apparel. Undoubtedly, the garments industry has had a significant impact in the economy and image of Bangladesh. The garments industry is one of the two major foreign exchange generating sources, the other being remittance from expatriates. The garments industry is providing employment to a huge number of people especially women who account for 90 per cent of the work force in this industry. Due to conservative norms and values that exist in the country, women are not able to work in all kinds of industries. The RMG has provided an excellent opportunity for them to get employment, bringing a significant change in the demographics of the work force of the country. In that way a major social change has been brought by this industry. The employment opportunities in this sector are encouraging farmers in rural areas to discontinue farming and join the garments industry. Women are leaving their employment in the informal sector where they mostly worked as housemaids. Many will argue that the living standards of the labourers are still below par, but one has to agree that they are at least living a better life than they used to live before. The success in this industry is creating entrepreneurs as well. Many among the young generation would have otherwise gone abroad, but this industry has ushered in a hope among them to stay in the country and make investment. Instead of being an employee in another country they are providing employment to many in their own country. This is also another social change that this industry has brought. The success of RMG has given a positive image to Bangladesh worldwide. Many brand name apparel items are now 'Made in Bangladesh'. In shopping centres across USA and Europe, clothes 'Made in Bangladesh' can be found. Thus Bangladesh is no more known as number one corrupt country; people abroad identify Bangladesh as a place where their dresses come from. It also makes the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB) proud seeing products from their country show cased in stores like Macy's or JC Penny in USA. The garment industry has improved the quality of clothing in the country in terms of design, making, and material; and above all it is affordable to the poor people. Another success of this industry is that it has encouraged the people, the young generation in particular to get used to local products. This ultimately saves foreign exchange. It is praiseworthy that despite tough global competition the garments industry of Bangladesh has made its place in the world market. The industry also sustains overcoming many internal problems like lack of continuous power supply, lack of a sound freight transportation system, poor container handling system at the port, unfriendly environment for business and unstable political situation which have increased their cost of production. Success in this sector is the result of hard work and dedication of the workers and the management. This success can even be brightened if the garments industry takes additional initiatives. This will benefit the industry, the lives of the workers as well as the national economy. Many industries in the past had to be shut down due to power crisis. There is no indication when this crisis will be over. In such a situation, instead of depending on the national grid, the garments industry should develop its own power supply using renewable energy. It is true that this requires a great amount of investment. Should need be, the government and the banks should provide fund in this regard. Uninterrupted power supply can ensure uninterrupted production. Land price in Dhaka city is sky high. Besides, establishment of industries in the densely populated city creates various social problems. The garment industries can be located at a suitable place outside the city. This will in turn lower their production cost. Furthermore, these factories provide employments to huge number of people. For them living in Dhaka is quite costly. If these factories are moved outside of Dhaka city, these people will also move out of the city and find better living at a cheaper cost. In

fact, many of them do live outside the city and they commute long distances spending a considerable amount from their income. This will also reduce chances of accidents. There are quite often incidents of fire in the garment industries. Fires every year claim many lives and make extensive loss of properties. If properly designed and structurally sound, the causes of fire in the garments factories will be reduced. Each factory should have required number of fire extinguishers as well. There should be regular fire safety and earthquake drills. The garments owners should ensure recreational facilities and well being of their workers. This will ultimately yield in a better output by the workers. The garments industries should make every effort to ensure that they are not polluting the environment. They should take measures to make sure that toxic substances from their factories are not polluting the waterways. The garments industry of Bangladesh has given a new identity to Bangladesh worldwide through their quality products. It has changed the life of many people in the country and has contributed to the national economy. The government should assist this industry to stay competitive in the global market. The government should also try to lower the cost of production by implementing a better transportation network system. Citizens should not do anything that may cause harm to this industry. It is important to realise that the main export product of a country changes its economy. As the economy improves the country opts for export of other products that are more sophisticated and yields higher profit. Jute and tea were once our main exports, but now RMG has replaced them. Thus, even though Bangladesh is able to gain a bigger share of the global apparel market in future, there may be a time when Bangladesh will not be a major player in this market. RMG then may be replaced by electronics products or computer software or something even more sophisticated. The writer is a transportation engineer at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

121 Export performance in the world market for Bangladeshi readymade Garment Bangladeshs recent export performance in the world market for readymade garment has improved markedly. The analysis reveals this improvement to bepredominantly the result of competitive advantages of ready made garmenti n d u s t r y . B a n g l a d e s h i s a b l e t o e x p o r t s r e a d ym a d e garment of high andc o n s i s t e n t q u a l i t y a t l o w c o s t s , u n d e r c o n d i t i o n s w h i c h m e e t t h e worlds t a n d a r d s s e t b y t h e w o r l d . I n a d d i t i o n t o c o m p e t i t i v e a d v a n t a g e s , Bangladesh has benefited from growth in the overall size of the world exportmarket for readymade garment, but has suffered from having only relativelys m a l l s h a r e s i n t h e i m p o r t a n t m a r k e t s o f s o m e m e m b e r S t a t e s . M a r k e t research on consumers demand and preferences could further i m p r o v e Bangladeshs recent export performance of readymade garment.