A two-day long denim exhibition organised by Bangladesh Denim Expo, a non-profit organisation, has held at Bashundhara International Convention City in the capital on 8th and 9th November where 55 exhibitors from 15 different countries showcased the latest denim trends and direction in designing and finishing. Over 5000 pre-registered visitors, including buyers, brand representatives, CEOs, sourcing managers, manufacturers, merchandisers and denim connoisseurs from the USA, the UK, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, UAE, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam and China participated in this two day expo.
Figure 1: A quality crowd in November Denim Expo became a great opportunity for the exhibitors to showcase their developments to create business leads.
The theme for this edition of the expo was ‘natural denim’, focusing on all basics of sustainability, environmental and natural issues that affect the denim industry and the ways in which to improve and develop best working practice. To make the theme successful three panel discussions on “$50 Billion By 2021: ‘Innovation’ the Strategic Business Driver” ; “Branding Bangladesh Through Denim” & “ Investment in Denim Sector Of Bangladesh”; two knowledge sessions “ Improving the unit economics of RMG manufacturing Industry” & “Choose The Right Way of Denim Washing” and one technical workshop on “ Total Quality Assurance: A Value Proportion” were arranged where national and international experts shared their knowledgeable views and opinions.
Worldwide garments retailers came back as the government has taken hardcore action against terrorists who were responsible for some foreigner killings. In addition, buyers expressed their satisfaction to get entire denim exhibitors from fabrics to washes under one roof of Bangladesh Denim Expo.
$50 billion by 2021 may not be possible!
Figure 2: Panels like this has created good opportunity to evaluate and reassess the strategies.
Johan Frisell, ambassador of Sweden in Dhaka, propounded his view and ideas in Panel Discussion where he spoke about the potentiality of the RMG sector as well as explained some difficulties of the sector. He has emphasized on long term predictability of market access and trade regimes, so that both RMG buyers and producers know under which trade conditions the export of clothes will take place in five to fifteen years from now. This is particularly important when Bangladesh reaches the middle income status and some of the trade benefits will change. He explained some difficulties for which to achieve $50 billion by 2021 may not be possible.
But there is also hope. Bangladesh RMG sector needs to speed up the programs through innovation as well as ensuring the efficiency, said Najeeb Sayed, Country Manager Dress Director, PVH Bangladesh. “ We are 2nd in RMG sector worldwide, can we be 2nd in terms of process and efficiency?”, he asked.
Tuomo Poutiainen, program Manager, RMG Sector, ILO, emphasized the importance of skill development for adaptability. We should create an overall skill development framework, find out the right type of people for the right positions and propagate Industrial Skill Council, said Tuomo. He also expressed his frustration that “ only few businessmen have skill development agenda”.
Basically innovation, skill development and growth are interlinked. A specially designed trend zone in the Bangladesh Denim Expo showed the latest evolutions and innovative trends in denim that would rule the denim world for the next seasons.
Buyers expressed their satisfaction getting exhibitors of entire denim value chain – from fabrics to washes – under one roof of Bangladesh Denim Expo. The exhibitors also made new connections in the show as a good number of buyers thronged the expo.