Much has been written on the two international initiatives, Accord and Alliance, to uplift the Bangladesh garment export industry for greater worker safety… While global media has hailed the initiatives as path breaking efforts in compliance and Bangladesh Government has come forward to strongly support the initiatives, many companies that have undergone the audits are unhappy with the way the two initiatives are carrying out the audits and filing reports. Yet, there are some patriotic voices that look at the work of these initiatives as a disrespect to the sovereignty of the country and its Government. One such patriot is Muzaffar U. Siddique, the Managing Director of Simco Group, who questions the very need and legality of the initiatives. “It is a deep-rooted international conspiracy being hatched against the country’s export that is heavily dependent on garments,” he declares emotionally.
Though the US $ 22 billion garment industry of Bangladesh that accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s exports, faces innumerable stalemates – be it the global recession, unfavourable trade policies, internal security concerns or the high cost of production due to increase in the energy costs and the rising wages and demands of the worker, the country has been accomplishing an attractive export growth in its readymade garment (RMG) sector. However, the tragic events of the Rana Plaza building collapse and the Tazreen factory fire in Bangladesh, has created a new ‘problem area’ that has put to question the livelihood of 4 million garment workers to whom the factories definitely wouldn’t be in the position to pay wages while ‘dictated and many times asked for impracticable changes’ being made, as they themselves are suffering from imminent losses. “These are the add-ons to our miseries that we already suffer due to the tight monetary policies of the country, gas shortage, electricity crisis and the increasing wages,” reasons Siddique. The task of coping with a 79 per cent increase in the minimum monthly wage to US $ 68 is squeezing sales in Bangladesh’s main export industry. Continuous gas load-shedding for as long as 7 hours during the working hours puts to halt the factory’s production as the finishing department sits completely idle. “This is why,” Siddique explains, “there have been no new set-ups in the country in the recent past.”
Established in 1984, Simco Group has four factories with a set up of 1,200 sewing machines that specialize in the production of woven garments, manufacturing men’s shirts, ladies’ blouses and shorts for buyers such as H&M and Next. Among the first 500 exporters to register with BGMEA, which today has more than 5,000 members, an emotionally charged Siddique in conversation with Apparel Online, even before his factories were audited expressed regret that a third country person has the mandate to recommend the closure of factories in his own country. “The erratic decision making of these two camps feuding amongst themselves to be the guardian angel of our industry poses an inexplicable harassment to the industry. With their trigger-happy attitude, I am left wondering if they even care about the workers, who they are meant to protect because they as employees have got nothing to lose, but we the employers and the workers are the stakeholders here and have everything to lose,” argues Siddique.
With deep-rooted understanding of the industry, having more than 3 decades of hands-on experience, Siddique quotes a famous Bengali saying, ‘Goriber shundor bou shokoler boudi’ meaning, ‘the beautiful wife of a poor person is everyone’s sister-in-law’, to express in utter helplessness at the authority given to ‘outsiders’ to decide the fate of the industry. “My buyers have already given me a clean chit on compliance and safety, why should I allow the auditors from Alliance and Accord to assess my factory again,” he questions strongly.
With a pro industry outlook and not just dreading the arbitrary shutdown of his own factory, Siddique says, “I can confidently say that 99% of our factories are safe, and mishaps can occur anywhere. When we have laws in place and a Government competent to issue and implement trade-related licenses in line with the law, then it is not tolerable for anyone to blame us for being insensitive to our workers… My son, my core team and I, all sit on the 10th floor of my factory; if it was not safe would I take that risk.” Even the reports filed by the Accord and Alliance admit that less than 2 per cent of the factories in Bangladesh are unsafe.
A true nationalist, Siddique has voluntarily sought the post of the President of the BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology (BUFT), formerly BGMEA Institute of Fashion & Technology (BIFT), with the aim to train and develop skilled manpower for the readymade garment, textile and allied sectors of Bangladesh. “We do what we can to improve the quality of our garments so that we can get better prices. We focus on the quality of the product by providing rigorous training to the operators and the supervisors; however the country faces severe scarcity of an efficient middle-level management and is sourcing production managers and industrial engineers from other South Asian countries like India and Sri Lanka. Now we are making efforts to develop the industry by opening academic institutions and universities specific to this field,” avers Siddique.
Though highly motivated to develop the nation and strengthen the roots to help grow further the garment industry in Bangladesh, Siddique is taking it slow for his own company and plans to hand over his business to his son, envisioning him to set up a spinning mill no matter what hurdles he faces, as the industry needs to strengthen its textile base. He goes on to say that if the foreigners back out from interfering in their country matters in the name of compliance, Bangladesh is determined to grow just as in the past after the independence of the country.
Efforts for Skill Development
Set-up in the year 2012, BUFT is situated in a prime location of Uttara Model Town of Dhaka Metropolitan City, having a good communication network with all areas of Bangladesh. It occupies about 95,000 square feet of floor space comprising classrooms, laboratory, library, faculty rooms, auditorium, students’ common room, and office rooms. With huge demand for qualified human resources and advanced technical knowledge, BUFT has been collaborating closely with various reputed international educational organizations such as Nottingham Trent University UK, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Niederrhein University of Applied Science, Germany and London College of Fashion (LCF) UK. These partnerships have enabled BUFT to provide international standard courses to its students. Added with this list, BUFT has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), India for mutual benefit in terms of credit transfer, exchange training program for students/faculties, faculty development program, etc.
To maintain its high academic standard and good market reputation, BUFT also has tie-ups with organizations like A&E, European Union, etc. to provide the students with expertise in knowledge and skills. Siddique plans to invest around US $ 1.2 million to tie up with Gerber in order to offer training in CAD softwares. “BUFT had a partnership with Lectra but being an educational institute, it was proving to be a rather expensive investment in terms of service and maintenance,” he says. Siddique is whole-heartedly committed to serve his country by offering qualified technical and skilled middle and high-level managers in the RMG sector.
