Earlier, Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman on Tuesday announced that the government would withdraw the existing five percent cash incentive from apparel sector from the next fiscal year.

The manufacturers said the growth of the apparel sector may slow down if the government sticks to its proposal as India, China, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the main competitors of Bangladesh in world apparel market, provide substantial volume of subsidies for their apparel sectors.

The businesspeople said with government subsidies, India, China and Pakistan have secured their own cotton production and are also getting yarn supply from their own backward linkage industries. Against this backdrop, Bangladeshi apparel entrepreneurs can hardly run their businesses without government help as they lack enough capital, they added.

They were speaking at a seminar organised by Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) on the sidelines of the three-day Bangladesh knitwear exposition that ends today at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.

Mahmudur Rahman, advisor to energy ministry and executive chairman of Board of Investment (BoI), attended seminar, which was presided over by Zahid Bakht, research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. Islamail Hossain, professor of Jahangirnagar University, presented a keynote paper on 'Knitwear Sector of Bangladesh in Post-MFA Era: Changes, Responses and Challenges' at the seminar.

Mahmudur Rahman said, "As India is one of the main competitors of Bangladesh in apparel sector, how the country will compete with India by importing yarn from it."

He urged the apparel exporters to build more backward linkage industries to prevent any negative situation in future.