\\\'EPZs need 4.50m more skilled workers\\\'

State Minister for Labour and Employment Md Mujibul Haque Chunnu on Tuesday said the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) need 4.50 million more skilled workers for its garment sector. “We’ve already selected 1,200 women from impoverished areas, including northern areas of Kurigram and Lalmonirhat districts, to provide them skill development training in collaboration with the World Bank,” he said. Chunnu was addressing the opening session of orientation programme at a city hotel for the officials of the newly-registered trade unions in the readymade garment (RMG) sector with focus on freedom of association. The three-month long training programme, to be jointly organised by the National Coordination Committee for Workers’ Education (NCCWE), IndustriALL Bangladesh Council (IBC), Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), and International Labour Organisation (ILO), will start in July next. The programme aims to sensitise the participants on the concept of freedom of association, collective bargaining, and other related issues in the context of Bangladesh. Presidents and secretaries of over 140 newly-registered trade unions of the RMG sector attended the daylong programme along with a number of senior leaders from RMG trade union federation. Srinivasa B Reddy, Country Director, ILO country office for Bangladesh, Roy Ramesh Chandra, Secretary General, IndustriALL Bangladesh and Md. Zafrul Hasan, chairperson, National Coordination Committee for Workers Education, also addressed the function, according to UNB.