Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA)
Despite many odds like the one-and-a-half day opposition strike against political unrest, which brought Dhaka to a standstill, Batexpo 2012 witnessed more than expected visitation, said M. Siddiqur Rahman, 2nd Vice-President, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in an exclusive interview session with Team Apparel Online-Bangladesh. According to him orders worth US $ 61.67 million were placed at the fair. “Last year we received orders of around US $ 66.35 million, considering the fact that this year is much slower the response is very good. It cannot be denied that the hartal and present unstable political situation has had an impact on this year’s show,” admits Siddiqur.
Safety of man, material and environment is today at the root of a good business and the industry knows it well. The recent devastating fire incident at Tazreen factory has given a sense of urgency to the entire industry and BGMEA, which has introduced a fire safety training programme focusing on imparting basic fire detection and prevention training to mid-level employees of 3,400 garment units in Dhaka and Chittagong. “The programme to be carried out jointly by the BGMEA, the Fire department and Civil Defence would go on for about six months. Upon completion of the training, the mid-level employees like line managers, factory managers, production managers and assistant production managers would be instructed to pass on this knowledge to the workers on the shop floor,” shared Siddiqur.
He admitted that the nation has learnt a hard lesson from the incident and urged the factories to be more proactive in case of emergencies. “The responsibility first comes to the owner’s shoulders, however the middle management who runs the factory should also be proactive to take care of such situations as the owner is not always sitting in the factory. When the fire took place, the fire alarm was ringing, but someone from the middle management said that it was false alarm. If the middle management had not been negligent, all the lives would have been saved,” reasons Siddiqur.
The entire fire episode seems to have given wings to other priorities for the BGMEA for a separate Ministry of Apparel dedicated exclusively to the country’s RMG sector. “As the industry evolves, a separate apparel ministry is becoming absolutely a must for proper representation and coordination of the country’s garment industry. In the absence of a separate ministry, factory owners are at loss to decide which ministry to approach for their problems. Sometimes, they take the matter up with the Ministry of Labour or the Ministry of Commerce and at other times they directly approach the Prime Minister,” avers Siddiqur. He adds, “The setting up of a separate apparel ministry has also become necessary for protection of buyers and labour federations, and for addressing issues related to customs, ports, infrastructure, etc.”
While Bangladesh is evolving as a key player in global garment trade, Siddiqur acknowledges that there are some issues which are of concern such as infrastructure, power shortage and limited logistics, which have been acting as roadblocks to Bangladesh’s success. “For 2013, our agenda would be to improve upon the energy sector, connectivity to port and availability of skilled labour. After China, Bangladesh is second largest garment exporter in the world but the difference is huge; China’s market share is around 37% and ours is below 5%. Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia are upcoming manufacturing destinations but they have a long way to go. Just imagine if we have skilled labour force our productivity will scale up like anything. We need to improve our skills by training our people,” he reasons.
Siddiqur strongly feels that if the electricity supply situation is sorted then Bangladesh would grow very fast in apparel manufacturing as the buyers prefer Bangladesh for sourcing as it can produce any kind of garments now.
BGMEA is also perusing with the Prime Minister’s office to get more land for setting up garment units. “We are very hopeful that the Government would give us 300 acres of land in Baushia, plus they will give us more land outside Dhaka and nearby city,” says optimistic Siddiqur, according to whom the Government of Bangladesh is looking at having joint ventures in infrastructure development and also environment saving projects.
