Business leaders and experts recently called upon the Government to devise a sector-specific, realistic and modern policy framework for the leather sector of Bangladesh to help it maintain the competitive edge in the global market while underlining that in the last couple of years the sector is undergoing a crisis on account of social and environmental compliance issues that have pushed the export earnings significantly down.
It may be mentioned here that last FY20, exports from the sector fell by 22 per cent to US $ 798 million.
They made these observations on Tuesday (29 September) at a virtual dialogue organised jointly by the ERF or Economic Reporters’ Forum, in association with Asia Foundation and Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID), on the theme, ‘Future of Bangladesh Leather Sector in the Aftermath of Covid-19’.
The experts also emphasised on the importance of rebranding Bangladesh’s image as a compliant and genuine leather goods supplier.
Attending the event, Prime Minister’s private industry and investment adviser Salman F. Rahman while underlining that there could be some delays in making the STIE’s central effluent treatment plant (CETP) fully functional, asked Commerce Secretary Md. Jafar Uddin to evaluate and figure out if incentives could be provided to private tanneries so as to expedite the attainment of LWG certification.
