Govt moves to conduct study on RMG sector

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Monira Munni The government has initiated a move to conduct a comprehensive study on the country's apparel industry aiming to help make the sector of global standards, officials said. The Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) has already given the task to the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) that will conduct the study within three months while the ministry will provide the fund, they added. "We hope the BIDS will start the work at the end of this month or early April and complete it by June," Labour Secretary Mikail Shipar told the FE. At present there is no specific statistics on the country's US$ 20 billion readymade garment (RMG) industry that is the largest foreign currency earner, he said adding that the study will make recommendations to match the sector with global standards. The MoLE took the move following the two recent devastating fire incidents -- one at Tazreen Fashions Ltd at Ashulia off Dhaka city and the other at the Smart Export Garment Ltd at Mohammadpur in the city. The Tazreen fire claimed about 112 lives of workers and injured several others while seven women died in the fire incident at the Smart Export. The two fire incidents in quick succession drew both local and global attention and shook the whole industry already facing an image crisis. Just after the incident the US has threatened to withdraw its GSP (generalized system of preferences) facility from Bangladesh-made products which exporters think would bring a disastrous effect on the export-oriented industry as it will lead a negative message to other countries where Bangladesh-made products get duty-free access. Earlier in February, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina informed Parliament that the government will conduct a study to examine the number of garment factories on an area basis, total workers and their problems and possible solutions to these issues. On March 20 an agreement will be signed between the MoLE and BIDS on conducting the study, a senior official of the MoLE said. "The study will help the government and other stakeholders prepare a to-do list to bring the compliance issues including global standards to the sector,", he added. Coordinated steps are a must to consolidate the sector, he said adding that the study will cover all the compliance issues including workplace and health safety, building structure, environment and number of factories and workers and workers' rights. It will also oversee whether the workers are enjoying all their rights according to the labour law, the factories are timely paying the wages or not, the number of factories doing business through subcontracting, he added. There are about 3,500 listed factories in Dhaka but there are also a large number of factories that are doing business without any approval from the relevant authorities, he said. Welcoming the move Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Vice President Md Siddiqur Rahman said it will help the sector to grow further. Echoing Mr Rahman, Vice President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Md Hatem said they have also their own monitoring cell. "But the government study will also help find out the problems and its possible way out for the development of the sector," he added.