Bangladesh must act now to secure future of its RMG sector

Bangladesh's ready-made garment sector has long been our economic anchor, lifting millions from poverty and placing the country firmly on the global apparel map. Few national success stories have been as transformative or as central to our national identity. Yet today, this industry-responsible for the overwhelming majority of our export earnings-stands at a critical turning point. The signs are clearer than ever: a deepening shortage of skilled workers, widening regional disparities in industrial participation, rising factory closures in key manufacturing hubs, mounting global compliance pressures, and a troubling pattern in which young Bangladeshi women continue to pursue risky overseas domestic work in the absence of secure options at home. If we fail to respond with urgency, Bangladesh risks forfeiting the competitive edge it has earned over decades of resilience, discipline, and sacrifice.

Despite these challenges, Bangladesh remains an important sourcing destination. International buyers still value the country's progress in safety, compliance, and capacity. In fact, during the first half of 2025, Bangladesh briefly became the top supplier of T-shirts to the U.S. market, a milestone that demonstrates continued global confidence. Buyers remain interested in expanding orders, but this interest increasingly comes with new expectations: faster delivery, higher volumes, more value-added products, and a rapid shift toward apparel based on man-made fibres. Global requirements have evolved, and unless Bangladesh modernizes its production base and builds a sustainable workforce pipeline, buyers will simply channel their orders to countries that are better prepared to meet these demands.

At the same time, troubling developments on the ground expose the fragility of our current model. More than 350 garment factories across Savar, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Chattogram have reportedly closed over a 14-month period, leaving over 100,000 workers jobless. Additional closures have been noted as buyers cut back on orders and insist on price reductions that many factories cannot absorb. Production costs have risen sharply due to persistent gas shortages, higher electricity tariffs, and expensive raw-material imports. Delivery delays, particularly in maritime shipping, have forced many exporters to rely on costly air freight, further eroding competitiveness. Buyers, operating in a tightening global marketplace, are increasingly shifting a portion of their orders to alternative sourcing destinations-an early warning that Bangladesh can no longer take its dominance for granted.

Equally urgent is the shift in global demand away from cotton-based apparel toward high-performance, synthetic, and blended garments. These products-athleisure, sportswear, outerwear, and technical textiles-now dominate global growth. Yet Bangladesh remains heavily dependent on cotton while countries like Vietnam and China surge ahead in man-made fibre production. Encouragingly, industry bodies such as BGMEA have recently expressed interest in building closer links with global MMF suppliers, including potential imports from the United States. Analysts continue to call for diversification into blended yarns, recycled fibres, fancy yarns, and multi-fibre technologies to prevent erosion of the country's competitiveness. While these developments signal awareness, progress remains slow. Without a robust MMF supply chain-spinning, weaving, dyeing, and finishing-Bangladesh risks remaining trapped in low-value segments of the global apparel market at precisely the moment when buyers expect sophistication and speed.

 

 

At the heart of these structural challenges lies a fundamental weakness: the absence of a modern, scalable workforce development system. Factory managers across the country struggle to recruit workers. The steady flow of young women from rural areas-once the backbone of the sector-has slowed significantly, shaped by changing family aspirations, demographic shifts, and the widespread promotion of overseas job opportunities. The industry's growing skill requirements have outpaced traditional on-the-job learning models, yet Bangladesh has never developed an institutional structure capable of bringing school dropout girls, unemployed youth, or underserved rural populations into a training pipeline that leads to stable employment. For decades, the sector functioned on spontaneous labour supply driven by economic necessity. That model has reached its limit. Families increasingly prefer to keep daughters closer to home or consider overseas opportunities, even when such opportunities place young women at risk of exploitation in unsafe and unregulated domestic work.

 

 

 

This is not merely an economic challenge but a moral one. Bangladesh's reputation suffers when vulnerable young women leave the country for precarious domestic jobs abroad. While skilled migrations such as nursing, caregiving, and medical support-should be encouraged, the export of untrained teenage girls into foreign households offers neither dignity nor security. The solution lies in creating structured, residential training systems that remove financial barriers and provide safe, supportive environments for disadvantaged youth. Successful models exist elsewhere in Bangladesh's social landscape: institutions that attract a steady intake by offering accommodation, food, and structure to families who otherwise lack options. The concept can be adapted-not for religious instruction but for technical and vocational training. If BGMEA, the Bangladesh Technical Education Board, and the Bangladesh Skill Development Authority developed residential training academies at national scale, they could create a reliable pipeline of workers able to meet the evolving needs of the modern garment industry. Training could include literacy and numeracy support, machine operation, MMF-focused technical skills, and guaranteed job placement. Such an approach would transform vulnerable youth from potential migrant domestic workers into skilled contributors to the national economy.

 

 

There have been encouraging signs. Institutions such as the Jamalpur Textile Institute-recently renamed and restructured-reflect an acknowledgment by the government of the need for practical, residential, industry-oriented training. National training programmes such as SEIP have also demonstrated the feasibility of competency-based skills development. Yet these initiatives, while valuable, are far too small in scale. Bangladesh needs dozens of such institutions, not a handful, if it wants to secure a long-term labour pipeline for its most important export sector.

 

 

The challenge is not limited to skills. Bangladesh's industrial geography remains dangerously concentrated. Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Chattogram are overstretched, congested, and increasingly unsustainable as long-term industrial hubs. Meanwhile, many rural and semi-urban districts remain disconnected from the industrial economy, despite having labour pools ready for employment. Properly planned and serviced garment zones in new regions could dramatically reduce migration pressure, spread economic opportunities more equitably, and position the industry closer to untapped labour markets. But expansion must be strategic, not haphazard. Infrastructure, transport, utilities, housing, and worker services must be integrated into the planning framework from the outset. If done correctly, new garment zones could reshape Bangladesh's economic geography for the next generation.

 

 

 

Alongside workforce shortages and geographic imbalance, sustainability has emerged as an urgent frontier. Bangladesh now produces more than half a million tonnes of textile waste annually yet recycles only a fraction. Global buyers, especially those operating under strict environmental regulations such as the EU's new sustainability rules-are demanding transparency, waste reduction, and circular production. Failure to address environmental performance could cost Bangladesh access to key markets. Conversely, developing domestic recycling and circular-fashion infrastructure could reduce raw-material imports and create a new competitive advantage for the industry.

 

 

 

The path forward is clear. Bangladesh must modernize its fibre base, invest in MMF capabilities, scale up national skills development, create residential training academies for disadvantaged youth, reduce the outflow of vulnerable women into unsafe foreign domestic work, expand the industrial footprint into new regions, and invest deeply in sustainability. These steps require coordination between government, industry associations, development partners, and global brands-many of whom are willing to support initiatives that enhance supply-chain stability and social impact.

 

 

Bangladesh's garment sector has been a story of courage, determination, and nation-building. We now have the opportunity to write its next chapter with intention. The world's buyers are watching, our young people are waiting, and the window of opportunity-though narrowing-remains open. Whether we seize it or squander it will determine not only the future of our export economy but the future of millions of families whose lives are intertwined with industry. It is time to act with boldness, vision, and urgency. The next twenty years of Bangladesh's prosperity depend on the choices we make today.

 

 

The writer is Port Shipping & Logistics Strategist; Former Head of ICD Kamalapur & Pangaon ICT, CPA; Adjunct Faculty, Bangladesh Maritime University