With achieving a robust 9.7 per cent growth in the first three quarters of the current 2015-16 financial year (FY16), the country’s readymade garment (RMG) sector made a significant headway on learning from the Rana Plaza tragedy, industry top leader said. “The RMG sector has made remarkable progress in the past two years with productively managing the challenges those emerged from the Rana Plaza collapse on April 24, 2013,” Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President M Siddiqur Rahman told BSS on the eve of the 3rd anniversary of the tragic accident that took lives of over 1,100 garment workers. Following the accident, the BGMEA with strong support from the government and different international organisations and leading global buyers accomplished various activities to promote and ensure safe workplace in the apparel sector, Mr Rahman said. “Continuous efforts have been made by the government and BGMEA over the last three years to transform our apparel industry into a safe and decent workplace,” he said while attributing the rapid growth of this sector to the post-Rana Plaza development initiatives. According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), RMG export during the first nine months of FY16 grew by 9.7 per cent against last year’s 4.5 per cent growth. Moreover, the apparel export to the US market grew by 11.31 per cent in January when the total earnings from this sector was $497.66 million, according to the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA), a concern of the US Department of Commerce. Recalling the factory collapse in Savar, Mr Rahman said the tragedy gave us the ultimate courage to make strong commitment to take the country’s apparel industry to the global safety standard. Subsequently, the government, international organisations, BGMEA and global buyers took various initiatives for rehabilitating the victims and supporting their family members besides carrying out programmes and activities to enhance workplace conditions and ensure safety and security to prevent recurrence of such accident. As part of the initiatives, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave financial and many necessary supports to victims’ family members and arranged treatment for the injured workers under her own supervision, he said. Mr Rahman said BGMEA provided financial supports of about Tk 150 million (15 crore) while buyers of many countries gave about $30 million to the victims and their family members. “The deceased and the injured workers and their family members got all sorts of supports,” he said. Referring to the governments’ arrangement with European Union (EU) where Canada and United State (US) also joined aiming to ensure safety and security in the apparel industries, the BGMEA president said this deal brought significant development in the RMG sector. He said the business-dominated Alliance (US-led) and the multi-stakeholder-oriented Accord (EU-led) are inspecting the RMG industries and working to ensure fire, electrical and building safety for creating worker-friendly environment. “So far a total of 3,696 RMG industries have been inspected when only 38 factories were found risky,” Mr Rahman said, noting that these factories had already been closed. He said the government, International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Ministry of Labour and Employment and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) are also working for further development of the sector.
