Future Tradeoff under Fourth Industrial Revolution in Bangladesh: A Study on RMG Sector

Abstract

Bangladesh's government has taken the 7th Five Year plan to implement Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting favorable trade policies along with industrialization, digitization, and inclusive development. Hence, well-running trade is considered as the promising indicator to achieve SDGs which is growing exponentially in our country. Here, the Readymade Garment (RMG) is the most influential trading sector to contribute enormously in the export-earning. In recent times, the sector is facing massive changes due to the automation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR). To sustain in this digital competitive trade market, has become a major challenge for the small RMG industries. A huge number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in our country have already been shut down due to automation. The large factories are also changing their manufacturing system by installing automation to cope with the demand for global competition. These are creating an unstable condition for RMG trade. The government needs to take a strategic and integrated plan immediately to gain the competitive advantage of FIR. Otherwise, Bangladesh will lose the international market for the RMGs of the country.