Bangladesh sets $30.5 bln export target for 2013-14

After achieving double-digit export growth in the last fiscal (2012-13), the Bangladesh government has surged its export target by over 11 percent to $30.05 billion for the current fiscal (2013-14), an official said Sunday.

According to the official from the ministry of commerce, ready-made garments, including knitwear and woven, would be given a special priority to achieve export target in 2013-14 fiscal year, which is from July 2013 to June 2014, reported Xinhua.

Bangladesh's earnings from garment exports, which make up more than three fourths of the country's annual incomes since the beginning of this decade, surged to $21.52 billion in 2012-13, said the official who preferred to be unnamed.

He said the export growth in 2012-13 - attributed to demand for its ready-made garments in key global markets which remained unaltered despite April's worst ever industrial tragedy in which a total of 1,130 people, mostly garment workers, were confirmed dead when an eight-story building collapsed outside Dhaka.

Bangladesh's export income in the immediate past 2012-13 fiscal year grew 11.18 percent year on year to reach $27.018 billion, falling short of the projected target by 3.51 percent.