Textiles sector goes under new agency

Bangladesh’s textiles sector will henceforth be under the Department of Textiles and not the Board of Investment (BoI). The Cabinet has approved the shift in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting that the Ministry of Industries had proposed the change to clear confusion about who takes care of the sector. He said: "The main matter is that textiles sector's patron organisation will be the Department of Textiles, not the Board of Investment." National Industrial Policy of 1991 stipulates that the ministry or department under which a sector falls will be its patron authority. But, the secretary said, the Cabinet on October 7, 1992, had amended the policy bringing small and cottage industries under BSCIC, industries in export processing zones under BEPZA, and other units under the BoI. He said confusion arose over textiles sector's patron organisation since the amendment. After the matter came to the attention of the Prime Minister, a meeting of the National Industries Development Council decided on June 20, 2012, that the ministries would follow the 'allocation of business' to act as the controlling authorities, according to a news agency.