Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday asked the exporters to explore new markets for Bangladeshi goods and expand the country’s export basket.

“We’ll have to search for new places.We’ll have to expand the export basket,” she said while addressing the National Export Trophy Award Ceremony in the city’s Osmani Memorial Auditorium.

In the function, the PM conferred 77 exporters with the National Export Trophy in 28 categories for their outstanding performance in the country's export earnings for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

Among them, 28 firms were recognised with gold trophies, while 27 with silver trophies and 21 with bronze trophies and the rest one firm with the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Export Trophy. 

Rifat Garments Ltd was given the highest recognition, the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Export Trophy for highest export earnings in the 2021-22 fiscal.

The prime minister said a country shouldn’t rely on only one export item as the demand of a particular item won’t always be the same.   

“Why will we be dependent only on the garment item?” she said.  

She expressed her conviction to take the country forward economically by boosting production, export earnings and purchasing power of the country’s people.

“We don’t want to be dependent on limited goods,” said Hasina.  

The PM said she has already given a directive to the country’s diplomats to pay due attention not only to political diplomacy but also to economic diplomacy. It is essential to know which goods have demands in a particular country, she added.