"The pattern of the world textile and clothing trade is changing fast and those who perform better in terms of quality and price can easily attain more and more markets," Taylor told a seminar on 'Productivity Improvement Program' at a city hotel yesterday.

He said China's productivity is three times higher than that of Bangladesh and China can pay to its workers better than Bangladesh.

The EC official, however, made an assurance that the commission would continue its support to the Bangladesh's garments sector in improving its productivity.

The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Bkmea) organised the seminar in order to explain benefits of different EC-run capacity building programmes.

Mia Mosaddek Ahmed, secretary, Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, and Md. Fazlul Hoque, president of the Bkmea, spoke on the occasion.

Hoque said the knitwear sector has no alternative to improving its productivity to compete with other countries.

'Productivity of one of the most significant factors that affect the competitiveness of Bangladesh garment industry," he added.

The chief of the apex trade body of the knitwear suggested that the apparel industry should minimise its cost and improve its productivity sector. "The cost of raw materials, employees wages and other services increase day by day", he said.

Bkmea productivity improvement cell advisers Kais Bin Zaman, Selina Begum and Arif Sultana presented three papers on 'Rendering Service to the Member Organisations', 'Implementation of Productivity Improvement Techniques' and 'Productivity Improvement Methods and Techniques' at the seminar.

They laid emphasis on increase in awareness level, maximum utilisation of available resources, reduction in wastage in production process, raising efficiency and knowledge level as part of the initiative to enhance productivity.