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business with $2.6 billion earnings for the past fiscal ended on June
30 this year. Official data shows the growth in earnings was only 6
per cent over the previous fiscal year's figure. Officials at
Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority held ongoing global
recession responsible for the deceleration. The worst hit industries
are those producing non- garment products. The apparel manufacturers
in the EPZ are also facing the impact of the financial downturn, they
said. Compiling the export bills on the goods produced in
industries in eight of EPZs, the BEPZA totaled the export proceeds for
2008-2009 fiscal year at $2582 million. In the previous 2007-2008
financial year, export earning from EPZs units was $2430 millions with
nearly 18 per cent growth over the previous year. 'Global recession
has depressed the export market for Bangladesh manufacturers as it
doses for others. And EPZ industries have suffered much as they are
depending on exports only' , said a senior official at the authority.
He said due to the recession fallouts, export target of EPZ
industries was missing with a gap between the achievement and the
goal. The official admitted that for the just ended fiscal they had
eyed $2.8 billion export earnings, but the global recession down sized
the earnings to 2. 6 billion. 'The amount is not huge, but the
downtrend is a concern', he pointed out and added the industries would
suffer much should the trend continues. The BEPZA officials said
industries other than the textile and garment units suffered much as
the demands for their products fell in the global recession-hit
markets. Eight EPZs in the country accommodate more than 300
industrial units when nearly half of the industries are engaged in
producing goods other than textile and garment. Productions in
these units include tents, golf shafts, camera parts, automobile
accessories, and light engineering products like iron chains. The
BEPZA officials, however, expressed the hope that exports from EPZ
would increase significantly in the current fiscal year as many new
entrants would start their productions. They also referred to the
very recent trend in the global economy that is showing some sort of
rally. 'This is good for our export market and may take the export
earnings indicator to up again,' they said. BEPZA made agreements
with some large Chinese and Taiwanese shoemakers and furniture
manufacturers, who are going to productions this year.
