Bangladesh textile industry is dependent on import of fibres from foreign countries, thus the government need to take steps for making the rules industry-friendly, said Jahangir Alamin, former president of Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association (BTMA) addressing a session titled “Bangladesh Spinning Industry in Next Decade” at the Global Cotton Summit Bangladesh-2015 that began in the capital to enhance relations between buyers and suppliers of the product.

Existing rules for importing fibres, slow progress in infrastructure streaming to supply chain management and limited control over prices of finished products in global market are the foremost challenges faced by the Bangladesh textile industry.

Textiles and Jute Minister Mohammad Emaz Uddin Pramanik who inaugurated the event said that they produce a little quantity of cotton. But they required huge amount of raw cotton to meet the local demands. Thus cheap and competitive price rate of the cotton is mostly essential for them

Bangladesh import cotton mostly from India, USA, Brazil, Australia and Africa. But the import of cotton is not always smooth due to volatility in the international market.

The prices of cotton in international market fluctuate regularly, and it makes a big negative impact on them, said BTMA President Tapan Chowdhury.

The buyers and sellers face difficulties in fulfilling and complying with contractual obligations due to the high degree of fluctuation of the prices.

Cotton exporting countries put export barriers and therefore their import contracts remain unperformed, he added.

The BTMA president firmly believes that this summit will provide their members an opportunity to understand the dynamics of cotton, growth, international trade and consumption.

According to the BTMA, Bangladesh is the second largest importer of cotton having imported 5.5 million bales worth of $2.56 bn in 2014.

The country’s spinning mills are fully supporting the export oriented readymade garment factories as they can produce 2100 million kilogramme of yarn and supply about 80-85% of knit and 35-40% of woven yarn to the RMG sector.

The Global Cotton Summit Bangladesh-2015 has been jointly organized by the Bangladesh Cotton Association (BCA) and Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA).