DHAKA, July 18: With three-fourths of the total foreign exchange being earned by the garment sector alone, Bangladesh exports in the just ended fiscal year are set to cross the $10 billion mark, officials of the Export Promotion Bureau said.

The bureau’s latest statistics, released on Tuesday, show that export earnings from garments during the last 11 months of the FY06 crossed $9.4 billion, with 21 per cent growth over the corresponding period.

However, four traditional and potential export items —- textiles, tea, handicrafts and ceramic products —- showed a significant decline.

“We are certainly crossing the dream benchmark of $10 billion export earning a year,” said Mir Shahabuddin Mohammed, vice-chairman of the bureau.

He said that earnings in May crossed the target by nine per cent to $1.043bn, with a 27pc increase over the previous year’s month of May. “It is the record of any single month’s earning in Bangladesh’s export history.”

The share of the readymade garment sector in total export earning during the period amounted to $7.04 billion, which is 75 per cent of the total earning, with 24 per cent growth on average.