It is only natural that the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) president would lament over the sorry state of the textile sector. Funds worth billions of dollars have been poured into the sector over the past few years, and it is now experiencing a chronic shortage of gas. The BTMA president said US$6.0 billion was invested in 2021 and $4.14 billion in 2022 in the textile sector regardless of the state of Covid which ravaged the economy. The importance of the domestic textile sector cannot be overemphasised. It meets "80 per cent of the knitwear exporters' demand for fabrics", and hence any disruption caused to it will have a chain reaction in the readymade garments (RMG) sector in general and knitwear sub-sector in particular. BTMA sources state that the textile industry is showing massive potential to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), as it constitutes the backward linkage of the RMG sector, which represents nearly 85 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings. But as stated by Mr. Khokon, president (BTMA), the energy crunch has put all those plans on hold.
While government officials have been talking about ensuring energy supplies if industry was willing to pay the cost of importing the fuels, there remain major sticking points between the government and industry. The most important point is that the industry may be willing to come to a middle ground, provided the supply of energy is guaranteed. Precisely, how the authorities are going to "guarantee" the import of these fuels remains unclear. As has been stated by many energy experts in the past, it is no longer a question of having the money to pay for several cargo loads of liquefied natural gas (LNG). What is important here is the ready availability of LNG in international markets. Again, the double-edged sword that is coming down on the economy whereby the country is being pressured to make payments on loans taken (by it) from foreign lending agencies and the failure to check the use of informal banking channels (hundi) is not helping to prop up foreign exchange reserve. It would appear that policymakers are caught in a web of their own making. Having wasted more than a decade in not exploring own energy sources and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build infrastructure that would cater for imported fuels, has now resulted in a deep energy crisis that causes the economy to wobble.
All of a sudden, the sector is told there is no money to import expensive fuels. Then there are all sorts of promises being made - one of which is 'renewable energy'. Given our failure to stick to the previous energy road map in rolling out renewable energy, precisely who is going to believe that solar energy is going to save the country now? Besides, any energy expert worth his (or her) salt will state that base-load energy must come from one of the fossil fuels, i.e. gas, coal, nuclear energy, etc. Renewable technologies that have made big news globally are hydro-electricity and wind-technology. The only major hydro-electricity project was made in pre-independence era and the government has shied away from wind technology. The headlines being hogged about a few megawatt-range solar power plants that have come online is not going to solve the energy crisis. Is it not time to stop beating about the bush and start drilling for possible on-shore gas reserves earnestly? Start exploring where pockets of wind exist. Again, hydro-electric plants have now become miniaturised (the technology actually exists) and Bangladesh is a deltaic region, so there are possibilities in this area too. Last but not least, energy planning needs a major rethink if Bangladesh intends to preserve its industry.
