According to media reports, the meeting took place on September 2, when the delegation called on the President to brief him on various challenges facing the garment industry and sought his cooperation in resolving them.
BGMEA told the President that nearly 400 garment factories have closed in Bangladesh over three years, as production costs rose almost 40 per cent.
Inadequate gas supplies, higher energy tariffs, wages and bank interest rates are forcing many factories to operate below half capacity.
Garment exports contracted 1.64 per cent in FY2025-26 and fell 1.92 per cent in July of FY2026-27.
The representation by the country’s apex apparel body offered a revealing snapshot of the mounting pressures threatening one of the country’s most important economic pillars.
The closure of nearly 400 garment factories over the past three years, as highlighted by the BGMEA during the meeting, is perhaps the starkest indication of the seriousness of the situation. The figure represents more than a loss of businesses. It points to a broader crisis marked by rising production costs, unreliable energy supplies, declining orders, weak investment, and growing uncertainty over employment.
According to the BGMEA, manufacturers’ production costs have risen by almost 40 per cent in three years, owing to higher energy tariffs, increased wages, and soaring bank interest rates. At the same time, inadequate gas supplies have forced many factories to operate at less than half of their capacity.
For an export-oriented industry where production schedules and timely delivery are crucial to retaining international buyers, such underutilisation, industry players held, can have profound consequences.
The export figures further underline the concern. Garment exports, as per some estimates, contracted by 1.64 per cent in FY2025-26 and declined by another 1.92 per cent in July of FY2026-27.
The fall in capital machinery imports is another worrying sign, suggesting that entrepreneurs are becoming increasingly reluctant to invest in new capacity. Falling orders combined with rising operating and financing costs can create a damaging cycle in which declining revenues leave manufacturers with even less capacity to invest and remain competitive.
Significantly, the BGMEA’s appeal to the President goes beyond demands for immediate financial relief. Its recommendations recognise that energy, finance, infrastructure, trade policy, and institutional efficiency are closely interconnected. The call for additional FSRUs, priority gas connections for small and medium-sized factories and affordable financing for solar power reflects the urgent need for reliable energy.
Requests for lower interest rates on working capital and trade credit, specialised post-shipment financing, and stronger support for green transformation and technology upgrading point beyond immediate liquidity needs towards enabling investment, productivity gains, and longer-term competitiveness.
Infrastructure and trade policy are equally important. Faster development of the Dhaka-Chittagong Expressway, improved cargo facilities at Dhaka Airport, and progress on Bay Terminal and Matarbari Deep Sea Port, stakeholders maintained, would strengthen logistics and delivery competitiveness.
Meanwhile, as Bangladesh approaches the post-LDC environment, securing FTAs and PTAs, particularly with the European Union, will be vital to preserving market access, they opined.
President’s description of the RMG sector as the backbone of the national economy underscores its strategic importance. But the BGMEA’s presentation makes clear that this backbone is under considerable strain.
The factory closures are not simply evidence of present hardship; they warn that Bangladesh’s future position as a global apparel powerhouse will depend on how urgently and effectively these structural challenges are addressed.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DR)
