After Bangladesh’s Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed’s recent claims that Accord and Alliance would leave the country by December this year, the Executive Director of Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety Jim Moriarty on Sunday reportedly maintained that the buyer’s body would wind up Bangladesh operations by December.
“The Alliance will not be here after January 1 next year,” Jim Moriarty reportedly said at a news briefing on Sunday, adding that their work will be completed before that.
“We are not asking for an extension,” he further reportedly underlined. It may be mentioned here that the global buyers’ bodies — Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety – were formed in the wake of aftermath of the tragic Rana Plaza incident, to carry out inspection and remediation of the apparel manufacturing units in the Bangladesh readymade garment sector.
Following the Rana Plaza collapse in April 2013, which claimed lives of more than 1,100 people, North American brands and retailers formed Alliance while retailers from Europe formed Accord.
Earlier addressing a meeting in capital Dhaka, the Country’s Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed had observed, “Accord and Alliance will leave Bangladesh after the six-month transition period on December 7 and then, we will take over the responsibility of factory remediation and inspection.”
In the same meeting State Minister for Labour Md. Mujibul Haque reportedly maintained, “I challenge that no Rana Plaza-like incident will take place in future in the country and the country’s readymade garment sector no longer requires Accord and Alliance as we have made significant progress in strengthening the capacity of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments,” while addressing the journalists.
