The BGMEA thanked the country’s finance minister for efforts to keep the country’s macroeconomic stability intact, ensure business facilitation, and establish long-term policy stability for investors amid multiple global and domestic economic challenges.
It said the new budget has shifted focus from a growth-centric approach towards holistic development with the aim of transforming Bangladesh into a trillion-dollar economy by 2034
The emphasis on sectors including education, healthcare and social protection is one of the distinctive features of the budget. The budget has set a growth target of 6.5% for the upcoming fiscal year. Alongside this, 10 critical priorities have been identified, including investment-driven employment generation, a production-oriented economy, deregulation, financial sector stability and energy security.
BGMEA says it considers these measures highly important and supportive for the country’s industrial development, trade expansion and particularly for the smooth graduation from the least developed countries (LDC) category. The budget arrives as the BGMEA called an emergency meeting to review what it said was “persistent decline” in garment exports. Due to the global economic slowdown and rising domestic costs, apparel export earnings have declined by 3.41%, average unit prices have decreased by 1.55%, and opening of back-to-back LCs for raw material imports has declined by 7.93% in the current fiscal year.