Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan has said Bangladesh and India have enormous scope to complement each other for the development of apparel and textile industries of both neighboring countries.
He stressed the need for more collaboration and cooperation between the two neighboring countries involving business communities and trade associations to explore avenues towards deriving two-way trade benefits.
The BGMEA president made the observation at a meeting with Sri Narain Aggarwal, former Chairman of the Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC), at BGMEA's PR office in Dhaka on Saturday.
BGMEA Vice Presidents Shahidullah Azim and Miran Ali were also present at the meeting.
They discussed possible areas of collaboration between BGMEA and SRTEPC to identify mutual business opportunities and work to make the best use of them.
They also talked about how both associations could work together to create a bridge between apparel and textile businessmen of Bangladesh and India to facilitate meaningful business interactions.
Faruque said Bangladesh is the second-largest exporter of ready-made garments in the world whereas India has a strong textile industry. Bangladesh imports yarns, fabrics, dyes, chemicals and other raw materials from India which is also a promising export market for Bangladesh's garments.
Moreover, he said, Bangladesh is looking to diversify its products from cotton to non-cotton and India having a strong textile industry producing man-made fibers and fabrics can meet the demand of Bangladesh's RMG sector.
"So, both countries can complement each other and reap mutual trade benefits," he said.
The former chairman of SRTEPC sought cooperation of BGMEA with regard to participation of Bangladeshi garment exporters in the upcoming exhibition "Source India 2022" scheduled to be held on March 20-22, 2022 in Surat, India.