Bangladesh Garment and Manufacturers and Exporters Association President Siddiqur Rahman yesterday said the global RMG buyers have reduced the prices of products unethically. Siddiqur said this at a media briefing in his office about the present situation of RMG sector and the ways forward. Citing OTEXA data, he said: “In January-July period, Bangladeshi RMG prices in US market have decreased by 2.45% while in European country 1.41% as per the data of eurostat.” Unlike the price fall the production cost increased 10% including the wages that surged 219%, he said. There are uneven competitions among manufacturers to negotiate product prices, Siddiqur said, adding that such competition exists everywhere in the world. In reply to a question that big buyers like H&M canceled their planned visits to Bangladesh to talk business, the BGMEA boss ran counter to it, saying “H&M top brass are here and they met me twice.” The country’s law and order situation is not such that would prevent the foreign buyers from visiting the country and deal with the manufacturers, said the head of the apex trade body of clothing industry. There had been overreaction to the killing of two foreigners, Siddiqur said, adding that terrorism prevails everywhere in the world whereas in Bangladesh it has not sprouted up since the government is ready to come down hard on it. “We are trying to introduce a “Unified Audit System” through introduction of a Unified Code of Conduct for ensuring fair prices of our products and responsibility of manufacturers in setting prices.” BGMEA also mulls over setting up of a “Global Secretariat” with buyers, entrepreneurs, workers, government and international organisations to resolve the problems of RMG sector. The secretariat will work as a think tank, he said, suggesting that the government should establish a separate secretariat for the apparel industry. Recently, twelve Asia Pacific Countries and the United States have signed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which will affect Bangladesh in its market as Vietnam, a strong competitor of Bangladesh, will get duty-free market access to the US market. The BGMEA will act on how to face challenges to remain competitive in the US market and to avert the impact of the pact, the boss of clothing industry association vowed. He urged the government to take necessary diplomatic steps to be included in (TPP). The apex trade body of garment industry urged the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to increase the amount of remediation fund and provide that for all factories instead of some selective ones. The Accord and Alliance through International Finance Corporation (IFC) are providing $50m to the factory owners, from which the signatories of the two organisations source products. According to a survey conducted by the BGMEA, a factory has to spend Tk5 crore on implementation of Corrective Action Plan (CAP) especially structural reforms, fire safety and installation of fire equipment. To complete the detailed Engineering Assessment, a company has to spend Tk5 crore to Tk20 crore. BGMEA urged the government to allocate quota for gas connection. At present, the RMG sector uses only 4% of the total supply of gas while there are many factories that import machinery and establish factory, but due to lack of gas connections they cannot go for production, said the president. There is no alternative but to establish deep seaport, Dhaka-Chittagong expressway and increase investment in information and technology sector to achieve the $50bn target by the 2021, Siddiqur said. FBCCI senior Vice-President Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, BGMEA former president Abdus Salam Murshedy, Anwarul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, Vice-President Mohammed Nair, Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu, SM Mannan Kochi and all directors were present at the programme.
