Introduction:

The textile industry has played an important role in our countrys

economy for a long time. Currently, the textile industry in Bangladesh
accounts for 45 percent of all industrial employment and contributes 5
percent to the total national income. The industry employs nearly 4
million people, mostly women.
A huge 78 percent of our countrys export earnings comes from textiles
and apparel, according to the latest figures available. Bangladesh exports
its apparel products worth nearly $5 billion per year to the United States,
European Union (EU), Canada and other countries of the world. It is the
sixth largest apparel supplier to the United States and EU countries.
Major products exported from Bangladesh include polyester filament
fabrics, man-made filament mixed fabrics, PV fabrics, viscose filament
fabrics and man-made spun yarns. Major garments exported include
knitted and woven shirts and blouses, trousers, skirts, shorts, jackets,
sweaters and sportswear, among other fashion apparel.
Bangladeshs Textile and Clothing Sector:
The textile and clothing sector is the largest manufacturing activity in
Bangladesh. It provides direct employment to about than 5 million
people, which accounts for 45 percent of all industrial employment in
the country. This sector contributes 10 percent of the countrys GDP, 40
percent of industrial value addition and 78 percent of export earnings.
Major readymade garments exported by Bangladesh are knitted and
woven shirts and blouses, trousers, skirts, shorts, jackets, sweaters and
sportswear and other fashion apparel.
History of the Textile Industry in Bangladesh:

When Bangladesh gained its independence from Pakistan in 1971, the

new government nationalized the textile industry. All of the countrys
textile factories were then nationalized and organized under the
Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation or BTMC.
The government gradually denationalized the production of textiles after
1882 for various problems such as low productivity in the labor force,
lack of planning, indiscipline, lack of accountability and poor machine
maintenance and operation resulted in a lack of profits.
Factories were privatized, beginning with the dyeing and weaving units.
Since that time, much of the industry has been privatized through
auctions and other means.
After privatization the quality of the fabrics produced improved
significantly, leading to a great increase in the demand for Bangladeshi
textiles in both the international market, as well as the export oriented
garment industry of Banladesh.
The role of BTMC within Bangladeshs textile industry has substantially
been altered since the denationalization of a large number of public
sector textile mills over the last decade and a half. Prior to
denationalization, BTMC enjoyed a near-monopoly within the yarn and
fabric market in Bangladesh.
At present, there are 21 textile companies under BTMC. They operate 24
spinning facilities with an installed capacity of 490,892 spindles and
1,036 looms. Out of that total, 13 of the companies which operate 16
plants utilize 320,228 spindles under the service charge system
producing different counts of yarn in the range of 32/1 to 80/1. Another
five companies have 128,088 spindles in operation.
Among the 21 mills, Valika Woolen Mills Ltd., Nasirabad, Chittagong, is
the only specialized BTMC company, producing knitting wool, woolen
suiting, mens and womens woolen shawls, and woolen blankets.

Other leading textile associations in the country include the BGMEA,

Bangladesh Jute Mills Association, and Bangladesh Knitwear
Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
Investment in Bangladesh:
As reported by Bangladesh news agencies, the Bangladesh textile sector
acquired an investment influx of Tk 622 crore (approximately US $95
million) between January and May of 2005. Twelve textile mills
primarily spinning mills located in Dhaka benefited from the
investment, which is said to be the largest investment in textiles in a
five-month period since Bangladesh became an independent country.
One of the recipients of this investment, Badsha Spinning Mills Ltd.,
recently purchased a blow room and 20 TC 03 cards from Germanybased Trtzschler GmbH & Co. KG. The Trtzschler equipment will be
used to produce sliver for Ne 30 hosiery yarns in Badshas ring-spinning
plant. Nepcontrol NCT, featured on all of the cards, monitors neps, seed
coat fragments and trash particles on-line. According to Trtzschler,
Badsha Spinning, which will export the majority of the yarns it
produces, selected Trtzschler equipment because high yarn quality is
important.

The Textile and Clothing sector at a glance:

Sub-sector

Textile Spinning

Textile weaving

Numbe
r of
units
350.7.5
million

Installed machine Productio Employmen

capacity
n
t
Capacity
Spindles (0.2
1,800
400,000
million rotors)
million kg

400

25,000
400
shutterless/shuttle million
loom
meter

80,000

23,000
Shutterless/Shuttl
e loom
498,000 looms

43,000

Specialised
1,065
textile and power
loom
Handloom
148,34
2
Knitting, knit
dyeing

2,800

Dyeing and
finishing

310

Export oriented 4,500

readymade
garment(clothing
)

400
million
meter
837
million
meter
17,000 knit/Dy/M 4,100
million
meter
------1,720
million
meter
------475
million
dozen

1,020,000

324,000

33,000

2,000,000

The Current Position of the Textile Industry in Bangladesh:

Today, the textile industry of Bangladesh can be divided into the

three main
categories: the public sector, handloom sector, and the organized
private sector.
Public Sector :
The factories in the public sector enjoy certain privileges such as
government
funding. In addition, the equipment in this sector is not well
maintained, as much
of the money allocated for this purpose is not spent as planned, but
is wasted
through corruption and poor accounting.
Handloom Sector :
However, the inferiority of their machinery, mostly due to their
narrow width, means that the fabric production is slow and usually
falls short of the quality needed for export.
Private Sector:
The most productive of the three categories is the private
sector.Since the owners of such factories are directly affected by
their performance, they take an active part in planning, decision
making and management. Most of these factories also have
machimery that is superior to those in the two other sectors
because the owners are well aware of the connection between their
equipment and their profits.

Some Details about textile industries in

Bangladesh:

1. CMC Kamal Textile Mills Limited(Lotus-Kamal Group)

Operational Highlights:
Location

: Kaicha Bari, Bashbari, Ashulia,Dhaka

Business Line
: Manufacturing of Cotton yarn of
different counts
Date of incorporation : 25th May, 1995
Nature of the company : Public Limited Company
Authorized Capital
: Tk 200 Crore
Paid-Up Capital
: Tk 18.92 Crore (Fully paid up ordinary
shares of TK 10 each)
Designed Capacity
: 24,960 spindles + 5 open end spinning
frames @ 192 spindles each.
2. H.R. Textile Mills Limited(Pride Group):
Year of Incorporation

: 1984

Authorized Capital

: 500 million

Paid-up Capital

: 200 Million

3. Saiham Textiles Ltd:

Year of Incorporation

: 1982

Authorized Capital

: 375 Million

Paid Up Capital

: 62.5 Million

4. BexTex Limited(Beximco):

Year Of incorporation

: 1984

Authorized Capital

: 8000 Million

Paid-Up Capital

: 4,664.475 Million

5. Monno Textiles LTD. :

Average Inventory Turnover: 6.96
Average No. Days Invertory In Stock: 575
Payable Turnover: 2.30
Average No. Days Payables Outstanding: 446

Conclusion:
The importance of the textile industry in the economy of Bangladesh is
very high.
Furthermore, the industry is expected to be the catalyst in the
industrialization
of Bangladesh, and has been declared as a thrust sector by the
government.
However, over the course of my Senior Project investigations, I have
realized that
Bangladesh's low labor cost, skill development potential, a presently
expanding
market, and favorable conversion cost can be used to turn the challenges
of the
quota-free market into a window of opportunity. In addition, most
developed
countries are turning away from industries like the textile industry and
investing in
other sectors, thus creating a vacuum in the market.
I have also developed some idea of the types of solutions necessary to
overcome
the problems faced by Bangladesh's textile industry.
The bank charges and interests interest rates for loans are extremely
high as a
result it is very difficult to gather the capital to set up and maintain any
type of
factory especially textile units which require much expensive equipment.
A
reduction of the interest rate would not only encourage entrepreneurs to
expand
their current facilities but should also attract new investors. The handling
charges
for shipping are also extremely high, which adds to the cost of the
materials that

are imported and exported.

There is currently a serious lack of coordination among the various
government
agencies that are connected in some way with the textile industry.
The Bangladesh Tariff Commission, or BTC should place greater
emphasis on
textiles and should develop more of its policies around the industry.