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Participants at a dialogue in the city yesterday stressed the need for concerted efforts of the policy makers and the garment entrepreneurs to over-come the challenges and utilise the new opportunities to emerge with the phasing out of Multi Fibre Arrangement next year. They said that while the local garment  manufacturers will have to increase their productivity and lower the cost of production to cope with the sudden price fall in global market, the government should continue policy supports to help the RMG sector over-come the situation.

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), City Bank NA and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters' Association (BGMEA) jointly organised the dialogue on " Surviving in a Quota-free World: Will Bangladesh Make it?" at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel. Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury spoke on the occasion as the chief guest, while US Ambassador to Bangladesh Harry K Thomas was the special guest. Besides, politicians, government officials, diplomats, representatives of financial institutions, business leaders, trade union activists and academics took part in the dialogue. Research Director of CPD, Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, presented the keynote paper. The dialogue was chaired by CPD Executive Director Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya. Major stakeholders of the country's vital RMG sector, which accounts for over 75 per cent of the total export earnings and indirectly feeds about 10 million people, agreed that the sector is capable of withstanding the jerk in the post-MFA quota-free trade regime, as Bangladesh will most likely to remain on any short list of international buyers because of the reputation the local exporters have earned over the last two decades. However, they apprehended that the smaller units might go out of business if they fail to improve their capacity to face the stiff competition in the post-MFA era. Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury told the dialogue that the government had already been pursuing a very liberal export policy and there was no dearth of support to the RMG sector. He said the government has reduced the port charge to 20 per cent and the interest rate of commercial banks for the exporters has been lowered to 12 per cent from 16 per cent. "We are trying to further reduce the interest rate to seven per cent, which, whoever, cannot be done overnight, he said. Khosru said apart from trying to win duty-free market access of RMG products to the USA, the next step will be to penetrate markets of developing countries including India. Putting emphasis on infusing modern technology in garment industries, the minister said the government was contemplating a central bonded warehouse to help the garment exporters curtail their lead time, a period between receiving the order till shipment of the finished products. The minister did, not agree that the sector, which has grown 16 per cent in term of value and 18 per cent in volume, would not be able to absorb the workers likely to be unemployed following closure of smaller factories in 2005. However, the government will certainly come up with a bailout plan if such problems arise in future. US Ambassador Harry K Thomas in his brief address observed that Bangladesh will have to develop infra-structure and eliminate corruption to retain its successes after 2004. He said the power sector, ports and international airports must be modernised to accelerate the pace of Bangladesh's development. The Post-MFA situation will be a difficult one to face, if you don't improve yourself", the ambassador warned. Speaking on the occasion, BGMEA President Annisul Huq reiterated his appeal to the government to help set up central bonded warehouse for stocking fabrics and machinery to help reduce the lead time to quicken the shipment as per demands of the international buyers.