According to local media reports, Bangladesh’s knitted goods manufacturers are now focussed on tapping into the potentially lucrative Malaysian market and are initially thought to be targeting orders to the value of US$ 1.0 billion within a short time frame.

The Financial Express (FE) reports that the opportunity has been created as China, the world's largest apparel exporter, moves into high-tech industrialisation, gradually withdrawing itself from apparel manufacturing. The newspaper said local knitwear producers in countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam see this as a major opportunity as China changes its business policy due to rising production costs.

"Malaysian buyers have started coming to Bangladesh to source more products from here in recent times. Our exporters are also working hard for exploring new markets," A K M Salim Osman, President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), told the FE on Wednesday.

According to the report, Malaysia is a lucrative destination for Bangladesh's garment exporters as sales of its products to that country saw an extraordinary 99.77% growth during the first ten months of the current fiscal year (2011-12) compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.

“Knit manufacturers and exporters said it may only take a couple of years to earn $ 1.0 billion from exporting apparel products to Malaysia, with government-level initiatives to explore market there,” the FE said.

“Bangladesh exported knit products worth $17.3 million in July-April of the present fiscal against the shipment worth $8.66 million in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the BKMEA data.”

Mr Osman, who exports knit products to Malaysia in large volumes, also told the FE that growth in Bangladesh's knit exports to Malaysia have the potential to be sustainable, as the cost of garment production is lower in Bangladesh.

"What we need is government-to-government initiatives to tap the potential market, as we have to pay high duty for exporting our products there."

“Besides Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand can also be good markets for local apparel manufactures if the necessary steps are taken to explore those markets,” he added.

"Malaysia is a potential market for our products, thanks to quality and competitive price we offer," Mohammad Hatem, owner of MB Knit Fashion told the FE.

"Bangladesh has immense potentials to grab the emerging market, due to possessing cheap labour force."

Source: Financial Express