Refayet Ullah Mirdha

Businesses hope for the year 2025 to bring about stability as normalcy has started to be restored in businesses following turbulent times both at home and abroad.

For the local apparel industry, 2024 was a year marked by challenges, recoveries and a renewed sense of hope as the global market began to brighten -- proving once again the resilience of Bangladesh’s apparel might.

The Beximco Group has laid off nearly 40,000 workers across its 15 apparel units, citing a lack of work orders for its export-oriented garment and textile factories in Dhaka’s outskirts of Gazipur.

Business leaders, economists and professionals have emphasised that an elected government is essential for restoring confidence in the business community, stabilising law and order, and revitalising the business and investment climate.

The prices of major garment items exported to the US declined year-on-year in the January­-October period this year as American consumers are yet to recover from heightened inflationary pressures..During the 10 months, the price of men’s cotton woven trousers declined by 7.7 percent, accor

After three months of rigorous work, a white paper panel on the state of the economy revealed all the fault lines that had formed across Bangladesh during the 15 years of rule under the Awami League government, which held power from 2009 until it was ousted by a mass uprising on August 5 this year.

The government has decided either to sell the ownership of a good number of Beximco Group companies or find entrepreneurs to lease these units out.

The reform initiatives taken by the interim government should be continued as these reforms may pave the way towards a more modern, equal and inclusive Bangladesh, said a top official of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The Trump Administration’s imposition of high tariffs on goods made in China may help to reduce the price of soybean seeds and edible oil in Bangladesh, traders and importers said..China’s retaliatory tariffs may also discourage Chinese importers from buying US goods, they added. .If

Chinese entrepreneurs are increasingly inquiring with Bangladeshi businesses over scope for factory relocations, joint ventures and fresh investments, apprehending that the new Trump administration might further hike tariffs on their exports to the US.

Following the political changeover on August 5, the country’s main export-earnings sector, the garments industry, witnessed a large-scale and drawn-out spell of labour unrest in industrial belts such as Savar, Gazipur, Ashulia, Zirabo and Zirani.

Delayed salary payment from a handful of RMG factory owners triggered the latest bout of labour unrest

Bangladesh has committed to amending its labour law by March next year to align it with international standards and meet the 18-point demand raised by workers in September this year.

A congenial business environment is yet to be restored under the interim government, said Tapan Chowdhury, managing director of Square Pharmaceuticals.

For local business communities, Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race has been shorthand for the expectation that Western apparel orders and some foreign investments would shift to Bangladesh, with global fashion powerhouse China possibly facing higher import tariffs from the US.

Bypassing the traditional air shipment routes through India or Bangladesh, garment exporters have found the Maldives to be a cheaper as well as faster route.

The demand outlook for locally made denim garments is gradually improving as Western economies rebound, local and foreign businessmen said yesterday.

Exporters say the traditional air shipment routes through Dhaka, Kolkata, Colombo or Singapore had either become too expensive or too slow

As millions of Americans head to the polls on November 5 to vote for either Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or her Republican rival Donald Trump, apparel business communities in Bangladesh, more than 13,119 kilometres away from Washington, will be watching the results of the presidential election closely.

Bangladesh has been struggling to recover lost work orders in the home textile segment, a significant volume of which shifted to Pakistan nearly two years ago.