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Md. Ashikur Rahman (Tuhin), is a Bangladeshi industrialist, the Founder and Managing Director of TAD Group. He is also a Former Director of BGMEA. Recently team Textile Focus received quick feedback from him. In this conversation, Mr. Ashikur Rahman shared his opinion on the Bangladesh’s Path to Diversifying Its Textile and Non-Textile Exports. For our readers, the key discussions are pointed out below-
Textile Focus: Bangladesh has a huge range of products, but many are still focused on producing basic items. Some factories are making high-end products and keeping production running, but they can’t take on more orders according to their capacity. In this case, what do you think industry owners in Bangladesh should do regarding product diversification?
Ashikur Rahman: I basically divide this into two parts. For example, until last year our target was to reach 100 billion dollars in RMG (Ready-Made Garments) exports, but this year it has come down to 60 billion dollars. We absolutely must work towards the targets we set, otherwise, we won’t reach our goals. On the other hand, Bangladesh shouldn’t be limited to just RMG; we also produce many non-textile products. For those of us who sell textiles, almost all of our customers also have non-textile products — like ZARA Home, H&M Home, etc. If we try to promote these along with our textiles abroad, a large volume will be sold through us, amounting to nearly 10-20 billion dollars. Over the past 5-7 years, we have been focusing on fashion studios and design studios, and foreign fashion customers always prefer trend products and fast fashion. In my opinion, now is the most appropriate time to diversify products. However, there is a problem here with backward linkage — if this is not solid, diversification will collapse. For example, even to make a suit, we still have to import materials from China. But if you provide incentives here, backward linkage will strengthen, and forward linkage will grow rapidly. Otherwise, the same old problems will appear again.
Textile Focus: So, policy support from the government is necessary in this case. Additionally, how can we work on backwards linkage with foreign companies, as many Chinese companies are forming partnerships?
Ashikur Rahman: Through partnerships, you can only do knowledge sharing, but ultimately, you have to be the entrepreneur yourself. We always welcome foreign investment. For example, after the movement on August 5, we resumed production from August 7. This was only possible because you are the entrepreneur — you have the investment and you feel the pain. If it were a foreign investor, it would have shut down immediately. You have to be the owner of the industry, and if other foreign investments come in, we will also gladly welcome them.
