Bangladesh should go for integration into the global value chain to make use of the big worldwide market for leather products and footwear, analysts said at a seminar today.

A robust supply chain can improve a country's international competitiveness and attract foreign investment, so Bangladesh should also focus here, they said.

The experts made the comments at a seminar on "Linking Bangladesh to the global value chain" held on the sidelines of the 2023 edition of the Bangladesh Leather Footwear and Leather Goods International Sourcing Show (BLLISS).

The three-day exposition jointly organised by the commerce ministry and the Leathergoods and Footwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association of Bangladesh (LFMEAB) began yesterday at the International Convention City Bashundhara in the capital.

The country has everything that it would need for the global footwear industry's backward linkage, but still it is failing to register a growth in exports of leather products and footwear, Mir Ehsanul Huq, commercial director of Amann Bangladesh Limited, said at the seminar.

Bangladesh exported leather products worth only $1.7 billion in the last fiscal year.

The industry has increased its capacities and competitiveness over the years and the LFMEAB and the Government have been working to tap the potential to become a cost-effective, sustainable, and reliable international manufacturing hub in leather products and footwear value chain, said Hasnat Md Abu Obida, managing director of the Maf Shoes limited.

About 120 new factories have been established in the industry in the last six years, he said.

The sector has huge potential in Bangladesh as the production of products of many popular foreign bands has been increasing in the country, said Silvia Popp, project manager of the GIZ.