In Search of New Markets, New Products Bangladesh’s Apparels Export to Japan

Bangladesh has pursued export-led industrialisation as a major development strategy over more than two decades now
• Considerable progress has been achieved in this effort; export structure has tended to
remain narrow and undiversified
• Export of apparels is accounted for 79% of total export in FY2009 (75.1% in FY2001)
• Apparels export is highly concentrated to top 5 exporting countries; Level of concentration has not changed so much at top 10 and top 20 countries
• Top 5 products such as shirts, trousers, jackets, T-shirts and sweater accounted for 62.7%
of export (52 2% in 2001)
Dialogue total in 2008 52.2% • Export Policy Order 2009-2012 (draft) reaffirms the importance of export diversification
• Search for new markets is one of the core strategies for achieving higher levels of export diversification
• A number of developed and developing countries are major importers of items are major importers of items that are either exported at present by Bangladesh, or Bangladesh has
the potential capacity to export
Japan is one of the largest apparels importers in the world (US$24 billion in 2008)
• Overwhelming share of its import is from a single source- China (more than 80%)
Under the changing market dynamics, Japanese buyers have initiated new strategies to diversify their import base
◦ From ‘one country (China)’ to a number of potential countries (e.g. China plus one)