I am Aqib Jafri Sharif, one of the Directors of Northern Tosrifa Group. I joined my family business right beside my bachelor. In my initial days of joining, I took in-depth practical knowledge of every department in our company and worked very closely with all of them. I believe this really helped me to gain the confidence and trust of my employees.
Being a young entrepreneur in this industry, I always had a different view towards every process and always managed smart and efficient ways to solve the problems.
Firstly, I would like to congratulate all the elected board members of BGMEA. The mix of each generation is a dream team for the coming years of BGMEA. My expectation from this board is the positive branding of Bangladesh Garment industry to the World. Secondly and most importantly, we need product diversification. To enforce such initiatives, we need a clear road map to reach our goal.
RMG industry of Bangladesh still prevails a negative image to the sourcing countries even though we made significant development in working environment, fire & building safety. The highest number of LEED certified factories are in Bangladesh. Despite of having everything we are still behind when it comes to branding our industry positively to the World. So, expecting our new BGMEA board to give priority to this affair.
It’s high time we move from basic knits and woven items to high-value products and diversify and broaden our market to the new horizon. We have greater potential and margin in products like lingerie, athletic/sportswear, suits, jerseys etc. It is now a must for us to diversify and make manmade fibre-based products as well. We should also open our markets to high-end brands to increase the country’s export earnings.