Bangladesh's earnings from exports to India increased rapidly to stand at $1.36 billion during July-February of the current fiscal, up 58 percent from that in the same period of previous fiscal.
Experts said the export earnings to India are increasing due to geographical reasons with lower cost of production.
Besides, this earnings has increased rapidly as the country is now producing quality products, they said, expecting that it will continue to grow in the coming days.
If this positive trend continues, Bangladesh's exports to the Indian market will surpass $2 billion for the first time by the end of the current financial year, they mentioned.
An analysis of the latest data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) shows that India, as a single country, is now the sixth largest export market for Bangladesh.
In other words, India is now one of the top 10 markets for Bangladesh's export earnings.
However, even in the last financial year, India did not have a place in the list of top 10 export markets of Bangladesh. During that time, India was ranked 14th-15th.
The United States, as always, is on top and Germany is in second place. Third, fourth and fifth place are the United Kingdom, France and Spain respectively.
In just three fiscal years in the history of Bangladesh, the export of goods to India has exceeded $1 billion in the last three consecutive years.
However, in the first six months of the current 2021-22 fiscal year, the export exceeded $1 billion to stand at $1.06 billion.
In FY 2020-21, the country’s export earnings stood at $1.28 billion to India, the highest ever, up about 17 percent than that in the 2019-20 fiscal.
Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami has given good news that Bangladesh's exports to India will increase in the coming days.
“Bangladesh-India trade has grown by 94 percent in the last one year. At the end of the current fiscal year, Bangladesh's exports to India will cross $2 billion for the first time, which will give a new dimension to trade relations between the two countries, he had recently said during a meeting with the president of the FBCCI.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has overtaken China to become the top exporter of garments made in India.
According to the Indian Ministry of Commerce, in 2021, India imported a total of $1.15 billion of ready-made garments. Of this, they have imported goods worth $47.47 crore from Bangladesh and $28 crore from China.
Despite the increase in exports, the trade deficit with India is still huge. In the last fiscal year 2020-21, the trade between the two countries was a total of $10.17 billion. Of this, Bangladesh exported only $1.28 billion of goods to the Indian market. As a result, the trade deficit was $8.89 billion.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a private research organization, said, “Bangladesh has a large and growing market in India. But Bangladesh has not benefited enough from there so far. The total value of India's imports from the global market is about $450 billion. But Bangladesh's exports to India are just over $1 billion.”
“Now our exports to India are increasing. But that is negligible compared to the huge market of 150 crore people in India. Taking advantage of the favorable environment that has now emerged will add a new dimension to Bangladesh's export trade,” he mentioned.
