The government has taken initiatives to improve the quality of leather and leader goods, shoes, light engineering and plastic products and develop the market brand of these products as part of its move to expand export market.

The commerce ministry has taken a project ‘Export Competitiveness for Jobs’ to diversify the export products at a cost of Tk 941 crore. Under the project the officials concerned will also be given training to improve the capacity for expanding the export market, reports BSS.

"The main objective of the 7th Five Year Plan is to reduce poverty by increasing export and to this end, the Export Competitiveness for Jobs project has been taken to diversify export products and expand market," said additional secretary (export) of the commerce ministry Md Abdur Rouf.

Talking to BSS, he said the prime target of the project is to solve those problems which are hampering enhancement of the competitiveness of the country's export products.

It was found from a review of the export information that around 93.58 percent export earnings came from only six products in fiscal year 2015-16 and readymade garments dominated 82 percent.

Rouf said "Export Competitiveness for Jobs" will be implemented in Savar of Dhaka, Sirajdikhan of Munshiganj, sadar upazila of Gazipur and Mirsarai of Chittagong.

Technology centres, cold-storage, recycling facility and infrastructure for cluster industry will be developed in these areas, he added.
Commerce minister will implement the project from July 2017 to June 2023.