Safety compliance
Factory inspection begins next month
FE REPORT | Thursday, 30 September 2021
The government along with private stakeholders will inspect factories across the country to identify problems for ensuring workplace safety.
Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) will lead the infection involving FBCCI, BGMEA, BKMEA and other sector specific associations.
The coordinated move comes following a series of recent industrial incidents that overshadow the image of the country's industrial practices overseas.
FBCCI on Wednesday disclosed the development at a virtual briefing where the checklist of the activities was shared in details with the stakeholders.
A total of 138 teams will be engaged in the special workplace safety and structural safety inspection.
Under the move, the government has decided to inspect more than 40,000 factories. Initially, the inspection of 5,000 factories scheduled to start next month will be done in 90 days.
In a video message, FBCCI President Md Jashim Uddin called upon the industrialists to help make it a success.
He said the infection would not cause any damage to the factory owners, rather it would only address the workplace-related problems.
"We will not conduct any drive to punish anyone. The objective is to collect information and enhance capacity to prevent various forms of industrial incidents," he added.
He said a good volume of investments would be required to ensure minimum level compliance in the comparatively weak manufacturing areas and the government would consider a package for them. He also said the government was considering developing a one-stop service from where all types of licensing services would be given.
Avijit Chowdhury, BIDA executive member-1, said they involved FBCCI at the instruction of the Prime Minister and they wanted to complete the inspection activities under a public-private initiative.
According to the checklist, seven kinds of safety will be inspected during the campaign. These are structural, fire, electric, machinery, boiler, explosive and environmental safety.
Chemical industries, plastic, light engineering, food, packaging and paper, printing and leather sectors will be prioritised in the inspection.