Minister for Industries Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun (third from left) speaking at the inaugural session of Bangladesh Digital Wages Summit at a city hotel on Wednesday. ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak (third from right), Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Ahmed Jamal (second from left), BGMEA president Dr. Rubana Huq (second from right), ILO Country Director and UN Representative a. i. Tuomo Poutiainen (extremne left) and UNDP Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee also spoke — FE photo Policy makers and private sector leaders on Wednesday vowed to work together to make sure all garment workers get wages digitally.
They made the pledge at the opening session of 'Bangladesh Digital Wages Summit' held at a city hotel.
The summit was jointly organised by Access to Information, or a2i, Programme of the ICT division, the United Nations Development Programme, or UNDP, and the Better Than Cash Alliance, Business for Social Responsibility and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, or BGMEA.
Industries minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun was present as the chief guest at the opening session of the summit moderated by Policy Advisor of a2i Anir Chowdhury.
State minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank Ahmed Jamal, president of the BGMEA Dr Rubana Huq, managing director of the Better Than Cash Alliance Dr Ruth Goodwin-Groen, UNDP resident representative Sudipto Mukerjee, International Labour Organisation country director Tuomo Poutiainen and Bangladesh country manager for Marks & Spencer Shwapna Bhowmick, among others, were present.
In his speech, the industries minister said, "We are committed to supporting the ready-made garment sector to leverage new technologies that will improve the lives of garment workers. These efforts will, in turn, improve our country's economic growth."
"We are dedicating our services to coordinate, support and test innovative solutions to digitise payroll in order to empower garment workers, particularly women," said Mr Palak.
The government is working on three important areas to digitise public and private services -verifiable digital ID, digital payment platform and interoperable framework, he added.
The ministers said that 90 per cent of the garment workers would be brought under the digital wage payment system by 2021 and 1.5 million out of 4.0 million workers are already getting their wages digitally.
The central bank is committed to driving down costs and improving access to digital financial services through building an enabling environment, said the BB deputy governor.
Ms Bhowmick of M&S said 64 factories of its 90 suppliers are currently paying their employees digitally.
Along with all constituents of the garment industry, the brand would continue to contribute to the digital wages working group and would share the experiences of leading suppliers who have already digitised wages, she noted.
BGMEA president Dr Rubana Huq said, "We want to go cashless. This is worth the journey, and we will be happy to take it on the timeline - by 2021, 90 per cent of the RMG employees to receive wages digitally."
The summit discussed issues being faced in making cash payments for both the garment employees and manufacturers, and how digital payments are beneficial for both parties, in terms of security, efficiency, empowerment and independence.
Shifting to digital payments benefits both the employers and employees, while promoting stronger business relationships, speakers said.
When the payroll got digitised, garment factories recorded a 53 per cent savings in staff time for their admin and finance teams.
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