Centre of Excellence for Bangladesh Apparel Industry started its journey on Tuesday aimed at improving the productivity of country’s readymade garments through research and development. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in association with SIDA, H&M and ILO has taken the initiative of establishing the CEBAI to improve RMG productivity by creating skilled and semi-skilled workers through giving market-responsive training or providing support for skill development endeavour by any member company. It will also research the challenges and ways to overcome them, policy recommendations, product diversification and wage mechanism. Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed unveiled the logo of CEBAI at a function at a hotel in Dhaka chief guest. Speaking on the occasion, the commerce minister said the CEBAI could play a significant and important role in the industry by providing skills and need based training. ‘Most importantly, the centre will also regularly conduct research on the industry to keep it in the right track of development and act as the think tank for the apparel industry,’ opined Tofail Ahmed. Mentioning CEBAI as the first such centre going to be established not only in the country but also in the world, he hoped ‘it would act as an important catalyst for our industry’s growth through research and skill development programme.’ State minister for foreign affairs M Shariar Alam, FBCCI president Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, BGMEA president Atiqul Islam, ambassadors and high commissioners of different countries, ILO director Srinivas B Reddy, SIDA deputy head of mission and head of cooperation Karin Mcdonald and representatives of H&M also spoke on the occasion. Dhaka University IBA professor Syed Ferhat Anwar made a presentation on the aims, goals and activities of CEBAI. He said the CEBAI would mainly concentrate on boosting productivity through skill development and market responsive approach. It would provide all sorts of training and skills solutions, basic, regular and product based research, professional consultation and new market development. Three core wings would be made the CEBAI functional. The skills delivery wing will be set up at Ashulia while research and planning cell will be at Dhaka University and other activities would be conducted at the private enterprises. The CEBAI would function as training providers, training regulations, new entrants, employers and industry and employed workers. Earlier in December last, prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Centre of Excellence project at the opening session of the two-day Dhaka Apparel Summit. Centre of Excellence project also aims to produce 6,000 skilled workers with the help of the industry by next two years. Swedish SIDA and retailer H&M are funding $1.5 million for the first three years of the project to be implemented by the ILO. Bangladesh is expecting to raise its RMG export to $50 billion by 2021. For meeting the growing global demand and export target, the country will need 3.5 million skilled and semi-skilled workers by next seven years.
