Unleashing Bangladesh's export potential trough trading houses

Boycotting foreign goods awakens patriotism among citizens and advances the country's industries. The citizens of any country must help advance the industries and commerce of their own country.
 
The quality of domestic products may vary from the quality of foreign products. However, it should not be an issue. If the dependence on domestic products increases, their quality will also improve over time. At the same time, if the products made in our country are able to capture a place in the foreign market, we can earn foreign exchange by exporting them abroad.
 
The new generation of entrepreneurs in our country should work with the goal of capturing the export market for locally-made products. It is important to reduce our dependence on the ready-made garments (RMG) industry and think about what products can be added to the export basket using domestic resources, starting with agricultural products, without being import-dependent.
 
Many people are doing it individually on their own initiative, but if an organised environment and planning are done, it is possible to achieve the country's export income target and increase foreign exchange reserves. 
 
We cannot rely solely on the RMG industry to increase the country's export earnings or reserves. Now, we have to build bridges between our trading houses and buying houses and those who are working or doing well in our domestic market.
 
We need to work towards the goal to ensure how to create more export markets. This will reduce financial risks, and the reserve will return to its normal amount.
 
In our country, everyone thinks of buying houses as being related to garments. Is that true?
 
The only word used in Bangladesh is buying house; the correct words in the outside world are trade house or trading house, which are the producers of any kind of manufactured goods, agricultural products, etc., produced goods, imported and exported. It helps manufacturers expand their businesses and promote business expansion, purchase, distribution, and cooperation.
 
Many invest their own capital to buy products from the manufacturer and export them themselves.
 
The term "buying house" is more common in our country. Everyone thinks it is associated with the garment industry. If we look closely, we can see that over the past 50–60 years, large trading houses have taken their place in all countries of the world, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. They have achieved economic growth using their industries. 
 
They do this only through trading houses, and as a result, the industries are largely free from financial risk. Now, let's come to our garment industry. Now, 100% of the financial risk is borne by the garment owners. Here, the buyers do not bear any financial risk. So, buying houses in Bangladesh should be considered trading houses, and they should also be given the opportunity to take risks. This needs to be done in a policy way. Why should only industries, farmers, or producers be at risk? 
 
We have large trading houses in our country that can earn foreign exchange by exporting a variety of products if they are given policy benefits. These include furniture, wooden products, garments, jute products, bamboo products, new handicraft products, palm leaf products, and those with a trade licence of 5 years or more. Bonded warehouse facilities should be provided only for importing raw materials for export.
 
By doing this, they will be able to capture the export market very easily with the diverse products from different scattered places. In the coming days, new product export trading houses will be added to our garment industry.
 
We have to find other sources of export earnings besides our garment sector, excluding buying houses or trading houses from Bangladesh. Buying houses will be just a part of our garment industry. Trading houses and buying houses will have to create a path for our domestic product manufacturers to sell their products in the global market. Buying houses and trading houses will not be able to survive in the garment industry for long.
 
Because the service standards of our garment factory owners are now improving a lot and buyers are now comfortable working directly with the factories, many large foreign trading houses or retailers are running all their operations through their own offices. 
 
That is why buying houses and trading houses will be wrong if they focus too much on garments.
 
For example, exporting jackets to Iceland is not a big deal now, but it is possible to earn foreign exchange by exporting freezers to Iceland. That's something new.
 
This is what the owners of buying and trading houses in Bangladesh have to do. Agro, agriculture, fish, meat, home appliances, handicrafts, bamboo products, jute products, etc. should be marketed as well. 
 
Finally, I would like to say that it is important to reduce our dependence on garments to reduce our reserves and financial risks. Therefore, multi-product export products and small industries need to be provided with policy support and developed as large, profitable export industries. If all preparations are made for the establishment of export trading houses, the country's export income target will be achieved, and financial risks will be reduced.

Md Salahuddin is the Head of Operations, Bunon Magazine. 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.