Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Bangladesh can become the number one premium and best brand in the world clothing market if it overcomes challenges -- fire safety, structural soundness of factories and workers’ rights -- and transform its apparel industry to global standard.
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan W. Mozena expressed the view while addressing a pre-departure press conference on Saturday at American Club in the capital Dhaka.
Mr. Mozena, who has been serving Bangladesh since May 2011 as the US Ambassador, is set to leave on Sunday as the new ambassador Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat will soon arrive here to take over.
Talking about immediate challenges ahead of Bangladesh, the outgoing ambassador said the most immediately is the challenge of manifesting the commitment and will to transform the apparel industry into a international standard. “That’s a big challenge
because it’s a big deal but if that commitment and will are there, I believe, it’ll be the largest apparel export industry.”
Appreciating Bangladesh’s progress in various areas, the US envoy aid the Asian tiger may be a home for outsourcing manufacturing products like leather and leather goods, generic pharmaceuticals and IT products especially the software if the country takes some special cares to remove infrastructural bottlenecks.
"During my three-year tenure, I observed tremendous progress in different vital sectors, I found four legs of the tiger -- RMG sector’s transformation, environment-friendly leather
industry in Savar, generic pharmaceutical products and information technology -- which can bring about significant changes in the country’s economic growth, said the ambassador.
“Bangladesh, a beautiful country having full of resources, is no mare a poor country,” said the ambassador adding that the country has huge potentials to grow up as a developed nation. “I do not know any poor Bangladesh. “I only know rich Bangladesh. This is a land of magic.”
Dwelling on the country’s industrial sector, the ambassador said, the country will have an extreme opportunity to export huge quantities of high-grade hides, shoes and leather products to the USA and other developed countries as a good number of new tanneries are coming up in Savar with effluent treatment plant.
He added that 150 tanneries have been established which would be completed by the end of next year and produce shoes and leather products of international standards. The leather industry will open up market in the USA and other parts of the world for shoes, belt, wallet and other leather products.
Bangladeshi generic pharmaceuticals will also begin to trickle into the American market within a few years. "I believe, too, that this trickle will become a flood as Bangladesh ramps up to become a major supplier to the American pharmaceutical market. In my old age, I will be nursing my health with made-in-Bangladesh drugs."
When asked about his best achievement during the tenure, the ambassador said it is the US-Bangladesh partnership – which he said is now broader, deeper, and stronger than ever. “As I look back over the past three years since my arrival, I am pleased with the great progress America and Bangladesh have made in fostering our partnership,” said Mozena. “If I look forward, I am confident that the partnership will continue to broaden, to deepen, and strengthen to the benefit of the people of both the countries.”
BBN/SSR/AD-21Dec14-12:26 pm (BDT)