Reflections

Introduction

Bangladesh being a country with a rich cultural and artistic history, has the edge when it comes to exporting arts, handicrafts, leather goods, ornaments, clay tiles, melamine and furniture etc.

In a developing country like Bangladesh, there are lots of opportunities that can be commercially explored and result in success. Exporting handicrafts, furniture, and custom designed ornaments and clay tiles etc. can reap huge benefits for our country and also add to the basket of exports which Bangladesh has. Bangladesh is mainly dependent on the RMG (ready made garments) export as its chief foreign earnings. RMG contributes almost 70% of our GDP and if anything happens to this sector, the country will be in peril economically. Thus exporting newer items can lessen the dependency on RMG, diversifying our industrial base, increase exports and be a new foreign exchange earner. This can also strengthen our economical position.

In this regard exporting handicrafts ornaments and furniture can be an intelligent and sensible choice, since all this require endless amount of manual labor and raw materials which are all readily and cheaply available in our country. This sort of industry can be set up anywhere in the country and even be made by individuals inside their houses. This is especially suitable for the women as the government and many NGO’s, including Grameen are actively trying to empower women. Women can make handicrafts from their home and can contribute a lot to the economy.

With our cultural heritage which goes back thousands of years, it should be easy to make designs and come up with creative patterns for making these products. Not only us, but westerners also have taste for ethnic and traditional products which are highly priced in their countries. Many spend millions on artifacts and handicrafts to decorate their homes in foreign themes and to show their collection of foreign traditional artifacts.

Demand for traditional Asian handicrafts and...