Second half of 2021 will be better

2020 was one of the toughest years of our business career. The year had a good start, but the pandemic has changed everything.

We see some hope in the export market by April if vaccines are available in Western countries. 

However, our export is not returning to the pre-pandemic era soon. We can at best hope that the second half of the new year may be better, if the Covid-19 scenario improves.

Entrepreneurs should focus on product diversification with their existing buyers and markets. But market diversification is not a matter of short time.

We have to produce diversified and high-value products to offer our customers alongside the existing business. 

We believe workers are a part of our family. We may face some challenges next month to prevent layoffs as a new Covid-19 strain has added to the worries in our key export markets in Europe.  

Our priority should be to protect workers' jobs. The government has also talked about further stimulus package to face the second wave of pandemic.

If we get policy supports for the next three to six months to prevent factory shutdowns, latter half of 2021 will be better. 

We should focus on improving the efficiency in managerial level and productivity as we are still stuck in mid-level.

After 40 years' journey, we have not yet attained the capacity to produce varied apparel items. 

The country has not got enough entrepreneurs who are comfortable with producing products for online platforms which are growing rapidly.