Consider export of non-wood furniture

The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) recently focused on exporting furniture to other counties as furniture industry is labor-intensive and labor is cheap in Bangladesh. EPB believes that furniture export will create more employment opportunities, explore new markets, diversify the market and reduce our dependency on apparel sector.
I appreciate the government's concern about diversifying the market but I think they didn't consider the harm it may cause to environment, if furniture export starts. EPB, jointly with different exporter associations, arranged Bangladesh Furniture and Interior Décor Expo- 2014, which started on 23rd March at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre to promote furniture export.
Trees can't be grown overnight. So within a short period we will lose our forests and the ecological balance will be in jeopardy. Again, if we import woods from countries such as Myanmar or Thailand, production cost will increase. As a result, foreign buyers won't be interested to buy from us. But we can make steel or jute oriented furniture instead of wooden furniture for export purpose.
Shahriar Imtiaz Sadil
Dept. of International Business
University of Dhaka