Aganagar-Suvadya: A potential RMG hub

KERANIGANJ: Near the historic old Dhaka, on the other bank of Buriganga, a total of 10,000 small entrepreneurs of readymade garments are fulfilling the 60 percent demand of garments as they sell about Tk 50 crore a day.

The garments village started its journey just after the liberation of the country with limited range and now it supplies the elite and wide-ranging shopping malls of the country, even exports to India, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, and other countries of the Middle East.

Around 500,000-700,000 people are directly or indirectly involved with the sector which serves a big contribution to the socio-economical development of the country despite aid from government or private sectors.

The small entrepreneurs are advancing the prospective garments village despite adverse circumstances in the country.

All kind of dresses available here but the village is famous for its jeans and gabardine pants. Technicians can reproduce identical designs of world class brands including the Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Indian pants by using foreign and local fabrics and rejected garments products.

The people concerned claimed that the main obstacle for the village is electricity. The total electricity demand for the village is 37megawatts while it gets only 7/8 megawatts. The maximum portion of the capital costs for the generator bill.

The village has an organization named ‘Keraniganj Garments Traders and Shop Owners’ Association’.

The general secretary Milon Hossain Khan of the organization talked to banglanews about the gradual quality improvements of their products and bright future of the village and barriers for it.

Though the government is frank for the big export depended factories but they are not eying on small businessmen regarding the sector. We have been discriminating by the unequal policy of the government, he claimed.

Duty free options for accessories importation, gas-electricity privilege optimization, bank loan at easy stipulation, modern communications can make the village famous not only in Bangladesh but in the world, Milon believed.

BDST: 2045 HRS, AUG 01, 2012

Edited by: Kaiser Ahmed, Newsroom Editor/ M. Mahbub Alam, Asst Output Editor