November 24, 2020: Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical export volume to Asean market can reach up to $1.2 billion from the present $60 million within the next four years if the technical and the non-tariff barriers are addressed.
Bangladesh has high potential to enter the Asean market.
To popularize the Bangladeshi drugs in the Asean markets, single country product fairs need to be organized frequently and Bangladeshi companies need to set up branches there.
historically and traditionally, Bangladesh has had very close commercial and cultural links to the South East Asian countries due to her geographic as well as strategic complementarities.
For Bangladesh to attain the government set goal of $60 billion export figure by the turn of the year, the performance on the South East Asian front has to be much better.
Bangladesh stands to gain significantly through integration with the South East Asian countries which will allow Bangladesh to focus on export oriented manufacturing strategy and encourage export diversification.
Observing that presently Bangladesh’s exports to Asean countries are significantly low, product diversification followed by market and need assessments in those countries will Bangladesh accelerate the desired integration process.
The five challenges identified in export diversification are: a) pro-RMG bias in the policies and programmes, b) inadequate policies and strategies hurting non RMG sectors, c)weak collective action on non-RMG sectors, d) an environment with a high cost of doing business disproportionately affecting the non-RMG sectors; and e) low public spending on health and education leading to low productivity and skill development.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
