Govt may approve action plan to help RMG units face challenges

FE Team | Published: September 05, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Naim-Ul-Karim
The government may soon approve an action plan to back apparel unitsâ€™ efforts to address compliance issues and face challenges ahead through strengthening Compliance Monitoring Cell (CMC).
"The action plan is to safeguard Readymade Garment (RMG) units, which contributed about $9.0 billion or 76 per cent to the country's export earning in the last fiscal," a senior government official said.
He said the action plan was being drafted in collaboration with the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP).
The official sources said the draft action plan was likely to be dispatched to the ministry concerned by the next week for approval.
The action plan will be implemented by December this year, if approved, in collaboration with the UNDP, which already launched a project styled 'Preparatory Assistance for Promoting Poor Trade (PAPPT)' to help strengthen implementation of the compliance.
Expressing reluctance to give the details of the action plan, official sources said a database would be developed to make available information relating to the apparel units of the country.
"We will also develop a website to let all concerned know compliance status in the country's apparel units," a source said.
The official sources said compliance status in the country's apparel units was now better than at any time in past.
Some 2,663 apparel units, affiliated with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), and 800 apparel units, affiliated with Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), have so far addressed over 95 per cent and 97 per cent of compliance issues respectively on an average.
Major criteria of the compliance includes implementation of the minimum wages, payment for overtime, maternity leave, emergency exit arrangement with extinguisher, festival leave, and weakly holiday and annual leave.
When asked, sources said over 99 per cent apparel units have addressed these major criterions of the compliance issues.
However, sources said the government was likely to provide the Compliance Monitoring Cell (CMC) Tk 200 million as an endowment fund.
"We are hoping that the ministry of finance will disburse the endowment fund soon," a source said.
The fund will be used for conducting skill development and training courses for the officials, employees and workers of the apparel units to help them become aware of compliance issues, he said.
Apart form this, sources said, the CMC would offer courses for the RMG exporters to help them understand the mechanism for promotion of their products on the global market.