Garments workers\\\' skill development

The opening of the Centre of Excellence for Bangladesh Apparel Industries (CEBAI) last month was a defining moment in the country's readymade garments industry so far as its productivity and creation of skilled and semi-skilled workers through market-responsive training are concerned. Though belated, the project taken up by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in association with the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), retailer H&M and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) holds great prospect in the wake of increasing demand for diversified and high-end readymade garment (RMG) products in the traditional and new markets. The challenges thus posed cannot, observers hold, be met by the existing level of skills and expertise. Industry insiders are of the opinion that in order to meet the growing global demand and achieve the garments export target of $50 billion by 2021, the country will need 3.5 million skilled and semi-skilled workers in the next seven years.

It is commonly believed that despite the spectacular growth of the RMG industry, it is the excessive concentration on low-end products that has left much of the prospects untapped. There is little in terms of sellers' choice as it is the buyers who dictate the terms not just of prices but also of commissioning products for export. With skills capable of producing market-responsive products, the situation would have been much different. It is here that skills can contribute to product development and product adaptation in keeping with consumer tastes and preferences. The CEBAI, as it has been reported, will provide all sorts of training and skills solutions, along with conducting product-based research on new market development. The skills delivery wing of CEBAI will be set up at Ashulia -- the garments hub on the outskirts of Dhaka, while its research and planning cell will be at the Dhaka University and other activities will be conducted at the private enterprises round the year.

The CEBAI project, certainly a dynamic move to make the most of the country's prime export sector, should be a model for other manufacturing sectors such as leather and leather goods, footwear, light engineering, textiles and handicraft. Replication of the project in these and other important manufacturing and exporting sectors will have multiplier effects on the economy. Beside gearing up the supply of skilled workforce to the benefit of the local industries, this can be expected to considerably curb the influx of foreign nationals into the country's manufacturing arena. At present foreign nationals, including those engaged at the base level in manufacturing plants, cost too heavily in terms of salaries and wages, that too in foreign currency.

Market research, the key foundation on which CEBAI is to conduct its activities at various levels of skills improvement, has not been essentially a part of the production culture here so far. Making it integral to market access is the need of the hour, and it is here that the CEBAI project will also be able to inspire entrepreneurs to gain useful insight into their business undertakings. The government, development partners and the business leaders may consider setting up similar service-providing institutes in other manufacturing sectors.