Government and EPB should provide more subsidy to buying houses for boost RMG Export

In the Readymade garment sector in Bangladesh, both the factory and the buying house are important, but there is a clear difference in the support structure. In the real context, it is very important, important and logical to give more opportunities to the buying houses through EPB (Export Promotion Bureau) and other means. Because. Goverment

1. In the investment and risk structure, garment factories usually get bank loans, bond facilities, cash incentives, various policy support from the government, and infrastructure (land, utilities) facilities are also relatively high. On the other hand, the buying houses run on their own capital or limited sources, do not get financing easily from banks, and are deprived of incentives as they do not have any production assets, that is, they take more risks with less support. A huge disparity has been created which is very important to remove.
2. The buying houses mainly play the main role in creating access to the international market. They find new buyers, build relationships with foreign brands, and place orders in factories. Simply put, buying houses play a major role in keeping the factory machines running. However, various types of unrest, including labor movements, occur in factories, which sometimes cause headaches for the state or government.
3. The country’s buying houses are the main driving force in foreign marketing and branding. In addition to important activities such as trade fairs, exhibitions, B2B meetings abroad, buying houses represent the country in different parts of the world with their own funds, open new markets, and provide feedback to the country by understanding trends and demands. However, this is where they should receive the most support.
4. As a value addition and communication bridge, buying houses works as an “intermediate bridge”. They take responsibility for creating communication between buyers and factories, as well as completing the entire activities of quality control, production monitoring, and delivery management. In this, they are playing a key role in maintaining the country’s export quality and reputation. However, the factories are taking the entire credit.
5. The role of buying houses in creating employment and entrepreneurship is immense. Many new entrepreneurs are created very easily in the buying house sector because businesses can be started with low investment. Buying houses are also playing a role in creating skilled manpower (merchandisers, QA, sourcing experts). Buying houses have strengthened the country’s service-based export sector. Therefore, bringing a policy balance is the demand of the hour. However, currently, as the facilities are more factory-centric, the buying houses are continuously lagging behind, due to which our international marketing in the ready-made garment industry is weakening and the pace of new buyers has slowed down. Therefore, giving priority to buying houses to bring balance is reasonable in the interest of important sectors of the country.

In my opinion, it is very urgent that EPB and the government should provide more subsidies for buying houses than factories in terms of participation in international trade fairs, provide travel and marketing support, provide separate pavilions or branding spaces, provide incentive guidelines to banks for soft loans or financing schemes, and launch skill development programs at government expense.

In short, factories produce and rely entirely on direct and indirect investment from the government or banks, while buying houses invest their own talent and money to create markets and ensure exports, keeping the pipeline of earning a huge amount of foreign exchange active. We know that production is meaningless without markets, so strengthening the power to create markets, that is, buying houses, is essential in the national interest.

Author – Mohammad Mofij Ullah Bablu, a buying house owner and adviser of BGBA.