RMG factory safety compliance

FE Team | Published: October 19, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Kamrun Nahar A significant portion of apparel export orders might go to other countries, including India, if Bangladesh fails to take prudent measures to ensure factory safety, said industry insiders. Local exporters think the next two years to be the most challenging during which all the factory fire safety and building codes should be implemented to safeguard the readymade garment (RMG) sector in the context of the ongoing criticism after several accidents. The industry leaders suggested far-sighted policy support, infrastructure development and utility support and concerted effort both by the government, policymakers and the trade associations for achieving the export target of US$ 50 billion by next five years. Bangladesh earned $ 27.02 billion from exports in the just-concluded fiscal year on the back of a strong demand for garment products and has set an export target of $ 30.5 billion this fiscal year. "India has set a target to develop their textile and apparel sector which they are able to do because their government, policymakers, state governments and trade associations have been working together," DBL Group managing director MA Jabbar told the FE Friday. He said Bangladesh is blessed that the RMG sector has developed here because of the instability in Sri Lanka and the effort of the industry players. DBL Group has won the Factory of the Year for Environmental Sustainability, Enterprise of the Year and HSBC Export Excellence Award in Group A in the textile and RMG category. Mr Jabbar emphasised the need for coordinated effort by the government, a long-term and sustainable policy and a vision for the development of the RMG sector to become the global leader in apparel export. Reports say foreign investors are showing increasing interest to invest in the RMG industry in India instead of Bangladesh because of the latter's political uncertainty, policy instability, frequent unrest in garment sector and the image crisis created out of the various industrial accidents. In a recent report published in the Economic Times of India, it was said that despite cost disadvantage in textile and knitwear production, many international buyers of traditional and non-traditional markets are now showing interest to outsource from India. As Bangladesh has been coloured as a non-compliant country over the time and China being more interested in engineering and IT sector, India has been receiving increased orders showing a 14 per cent growth in last five months. Quoting the chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), it said the association will visit Israel, Japan and Australia. India has highly compliant factories and expects to cross the export target of $ 17 billion this year. "The competitive edge of India has been increasing day by day because of their rupee devaluation. Their currency has been devaluated by 29 per cent," Envoy Group managing director Abdus Salam Murshedy told the FE. He said India has set a target to achieve an 18 per cent growth in their textile industry which they will be able to do as they have a very good policy. Mr Murshedy thinks implementation of fire safety and building code is the main challenge for Bangladesh for which the country has been striving. He emphasised that the non-compliant industries need to be relocated after inspection to make them compliant. "We have a challenge of streamlining our industry within next two years. If we can successfully implement the Alliance and Accord safety guidelines, we can enhance our export to $ 50 billion dollars by next five years," president of the Exporter's Association of Bangladesh said, adding: for this we need new infrastructure, policy and utility support. He is hopeful that if Bangladesh can successfully implement the safety standards and all other conditions for the betterment of the industry and welfare of the workers, it will not need any more branding to regain the image as 84 international brands have already been working here. Garment exports from Bangladesh continued to increase despite bad publicity generated over the recent tragedies of Tazreen fire and Rana Plaza collapse. Between July and August, knitwear exports earned $ 2.1 billion, up 17.19 per cent from a year ago, while woven garments fetched $ 2.05 billion, a 16.98 per cent year-on-year rise. Experts think the reason for the rise is the emergence of new export destinations like Japan, Russia and South Africa, all the while cushioned by steady exports to the European Union. If this trend continues, the country hopes to achieve this fiscal year's export target of $ 30.5 billion.