The Readymade Garment Industry is one of the globalized industries of the world. However, the ready-made garments (RMG) sector has emerged as the largest foreign exchange earner. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The RMG industry has seen exponential growth since the 1980s. Globally, this sector contributes significantly to GDP. 1950 was the beginning of RMG in the Western world. The MFA (Multi Fiber Agreement) made in 1974 mandated an export rate increase of 6% every year from a developing country to a developed country. China is a major exporter of ready-made garments. In the early 1980s Bangladesh started receiving investments in the RMG sector. Some Bangladeshis received free training from the Korean company Daewoo. In the 1980s there were only 50 factories employing only a few thousand people. Currently there are 4490 production units. The RMG sector contributes approximately 76% to the total export earnings. This sector also contributes about 13% to the GDP, which in 1991 was only about 3%. RMG products are mainly exported to the United States of America and the European Union. Of the approximately 4.2 million people employed in this sector, approximately 50% are women from rural areas. In 2000, the industry, made up of approximately 3,000 factories, directly employed more than 1.5 million workers, of whom nearly 80 percent were women. The US is the largest importer of ready-made products from Bangladesh, followed by Germany, UK, France and other EU countries. Recent movements show that India and Pakistan pose the two biggest threats to Bangladesh and the textile industry. Because the readymade garment industry has played a substantial role in the Indian and Pakistani economy. For Bangladesh, the ready-made garment sector is the goose that lays the golden eggs. The country has emerged as the second largest exporter of ready-made garment products, just after China. Bangladesh entered the apparel export market in 1978 with only nine units and earned $0.069 million. Over the last three decades, this sector has achieved phenomenal growth thanks to the government's policy support and, more importantly, the dynamism of private sector entrepreneurs along with extremely hard-working workers. Now the number of RMG units is around 6,000 and export earnings have increased to more than $20 billion. Knitted garments are exported to 148 countries and woven products to 132 countries. Export earnings could be more than doubled by 2020. But all this expansion and global demands started after the failure of jute exports (which was once the largest export item). Bangladesh's garment industry employs around 3.6 million workers, of which 2.8 million are women. The workers in these garment factories are almost always illiterate. They have very limited knowledge of human rights, working conditions and labor standards. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Additionally, a survey found that European and US companies focusing on The value segment of the apparel market expect to expand the share of sourcing from Bangladesh to 25-32% by 2020, from the current average of 20%. Bangladesh is now trying to diversify its markets to include Japan, Australia.