A bill styled “The Textile Law, 2018” was placed in the Jatiya Sangsad keeping the provision of some specific rules to ensure the sustainable development of the textile sector, one of the key driving factor of the country’s economy.

State Minister for Textile and Jute Mirza Azam placed the bill in the House with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

In the proposed law priority has been given to the various sustainable development activities of the textile sector including realizing the domestic demands of the products, increasing export income and creating more job opportunities. The state minister said the aim of the newly proposed law is to maintain quality of textile products as Bangladesh is earning huge foreign currency from this sector.

About 83.95 percent of the country’s total export earnings came from the textile sector in the 2016-17 financial year, he said, adding that apparel products worth over US$ 29.26 billion were exported in the last fiscal.

Referring to the present government’s “Vision-2021” where the export target is US$ 60 billion within 2021, the state minister said only textile sector took a target to realize US$ 50 billion.

Later, the bill was sent to the concerned parliamentary standing committee for scrutiny and report back to the House within 15 working days.

Earlier, the cabinet on February 26, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, gave its final approval to the draft law, considering importance of huge apparel exports from Bangladesh.