Industry insiders said thousands of foreign engineers, particularly from India, Pakistan and the Philippines, are working in Bangladesh, as the country lacks skilled professionals.

Sources in Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) said the sector, in average, is getting one new industry every 15 days, but the supply of manpower, particularly with textile engineering background, is very limited.

As such, the entrepreneurs are being forced to appoint textile engineers from outside the country, offering higher salaries and benefits, they told the news agency.

The sector is primarily serving the readymade garment industry that exports the products mainly to the developed countries of Europe and North America where quality matters the most.

Currently, BTMA has some 875 member factories: 249 producing yarn, 478 fabrics and 148 doing the dying and printing jobs.

"These mills need huge skilled manpower, but the lone textile-engineering college in the country cannot provide us with enough skilled professionals we are crying for," BTMA Chairman MA Awal said.

He urged the government to make it mandatory for all public and private universities to offer programmes and courses on textile engineering in order to make up the shortage of textile engineers in the country.

Meanwhile, the BTMA has taken up a project to set up a training institute for the textile graduates to equip them with the state of the art technology and applied education.

The BTMA has already signed an agreement with a donor agency to this effect and completed formalities with the concerned ministry.

"We hope the institution would be able to offer courses within the next three months," MA Awal said.

He said the institute would design various short courses on commercial and technical issues for capacity building of the fresh textile graduates for their smooth entrance into the industry as professionals.

A board, comprising representatives from the BTMA and the government, will be constituted to supervise the institute to be housed beside the BTMA office at Unique Trade Center on Panthapath in Dhaka.