BGMEA to create its own intelligence wing to prevent unrest in factories
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Jubair Hasan
Apparel manufactures have planned to create an independent intelligence wing at their own expenses to get early warning about unrest in the country's US$ 11 billion garment industry, officials said Sunday.
Leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said they would form the wing as soon as possible, comprising retired army personnel and detective police officers.
The move comes weeks after a violent unrest by tens of thousands of protesting workers forced temporary shutdown of hundreds of factories at the country's largest garment industrial hub at Ashulia.
At least two workers were killed, hundreds injured and three big factories, including a 10-storey sweater factory, were set on fire during the four-day violence.
Garment owners said the unrest cost them tens of millions of dollars in delayed shipments and sent some negative signals to top global buyers. Properties worth Tk 1.50 billion were also damaged during the rampage.
"We've decided to create an independent intelligence body to protect our industry from vandalism," BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy told the FE by mobile phone from India.
He said frequent failures and non-cooperation of the law-enforcing agencies in curbing violence in the most important industrial sector prompted them to create the intelligence wing.
"We have no other option but to form the body as the government's intelligence officials had failed miserably time and again to inform us about unrest and acts of sabotage in the industry," Murshedy said.
"We are perplexed by this cycle of violence. We think a vested quarter is behind many of these engineered protests and vandalism because most of these incidents occurred in factories with good labour practices," he said.
The next board meeting of the BGMEA would discuss the issue and is expected to give the approval, he said, without elaborating the strength and work sphere of the proposed wing.
The BGMEA president said after the board meeting they would place advertisements in newspapers, seeking applications from just-retired law enforcers and army officers to man the body.
Another BGMEA official said the intelligence wing would report to garment makers as well as the law enforcers as soon as they see the first signs of troubles in a factory or any industrial area.
"Their information will be crucial for preventing future unrest in the factories. We don't want to be portrayed as violence-prone industry to the western buyers," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said the idea of forming the wing came as the apparel entrepreneurs could no longer rely on the national intelligence agencies.
"In almost every instance in recent years, these agencies have failed to give us advance information about acts of violence or unrest," he said.
The country has more than 4500 factories mostly concentrated in the outskirts of Dhaka and Chittagong. The industry accounts for 80 per cent of the country's export and employ three million workers, or about 40 per cent of industrial workforce.
Despite the doomsday projection made by some experts, garment exports have increased by over 17 per cent in the first eleven months of the year, with knitted items such as sweater leading the growth.
Apparel manufactures have planned to create an independent intelligence wing at their own expenses to get early warning about unrest in the country's US$ 11 billion garment industry, officials said Sunday.
Leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said they would form the wing as soon as possible, comprising retired army personnel and detective police officers.
The move comes weeks after a violent unrest by tens of thousands of protesting workers forced temporary shutdown of hundreds of factories at the country's largest garment industrial hub at Ashulia.
At least two workers were killed, hundreds injured and three big factories, including a 10-storey sweater factory, were set on fire during the four-day violence.
Garment owners said the unrest cost them tens of millions of dollars in delayed shipments and sent some negative signals to top global buyers. Properties worth Tk 1.50 billion were also damaged during the rampage.
"We've decided to create an independent intelligence body to protect our industry from vandalism," BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy told the FE by mobile phone from India.
He said frequent failures and non-cooperation of the law-enforcing agencies in curbing violence in the most important industrial sector prompted them to create the intelligence wing.
"We have no other option but to form the body as the government's intelligence officials had failed miserably time and again to inform us about unrest and acts of sabotage in the industry," Murshedy said.
"We are perplexed by this cycle of violence. We think a vested quarter is behind many of these engineered protests and vandalism because most of these incidents occurred in factories with good labour practices," he said.
The next board meeting of the BGMEA would discuss the issue and is expected to give the approval, he said, without elaborating the strength and work sphere of the proposed wing.
The BGMEA president said after the board meeting they would place advertisements in newspapers, seeking applications from just-retired law enforcers and army officers to man the body.
Another BGMEA official said the intelligence wing would report to garment makers as well as the law enforcers as soon as they see the first signs of troubles in a factory or any industrial area.
"Their information will be crucial for preventing future unrest in the factories. We don't want to be portrayed as violence-prone industry to the western buyers," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said the idea of forming the wing came as the apparel entrepreneurs could no longer rely on the national intelligence agencies.
"In almost every instance in recent years, these agencies have failed to give us advance information about acts of violence or unrest," he said.
The country has more than 4500 factories mostly concentrated in the outskirts of Dhaka and Chittagong. The industry accounts for 80 per cent of the country's export and employ three million workers, or about 40 per cent of industrial workforce.
Despite the doomsday projection made by some experts, garment exports have increased by over 17 per cent in the first eleven months of the year, with knitted items such as sweater leading the growth.