New investment to bring new hope

Apparel exporters are optimistic about a positive trend in their business if the US and the EU countries are able to vaccinate their people by February to March.

Hopefully, their markets will remain open thanks to the rollout of Covid vaccine. 

Bangladesh is also supposed to get Covid vaccine by February. 

If there is no third or fourth wave, the global economy would not face any further closure, and Bangladesh's apparel export will see gradual increase. 

We are reeling under pandemic shock. 

We are running our units only for 8 hours a day and facing many hardships due to a shortage of orders, while it was about 10 hours in the pre-Covid period. 
 
We are hoping to go back to 10-hour full production at the end of the winter season. 

The factories that already invested in expansion will have to proceed with their plan. 

Our group has also planned to recruit some manpower- about 1000, each month from March to April. 

If the situation does not go worse, we will execute our plan as we already secured some orders for that capacity. 

Apparel exporters have some ongoing investment processes -- some have plans to increase capacity and some have prepared production floors requiring to hire new manpower. 

However, those who have not made fresh investments yet, they might give a second thought in this situation. 

If the economy turns around, the expansion process will gear up naturally and that may create more employment opportunities. In this process the country's export earnings will get momentum.