The government has finalised the draft of leather policy with an aim to achieve $5 billion export earnings target from the sector by 2021 and to increase the contribution of leather sector to Gross Domestic Product to 2.5 per cent from existing 0.5 per cent.The industries ministry has recently finalised the draft with the inclusion of recommendations from stakeholders and the draft would be turned into a policy within a very short time, government officials said.According to the draft, the name of the policy would be ‘Leather and Leather Products Development Policy 2019’ and it would be reviewed every five years.The draft included a time-bound action plan to implement the policy in phases.‘Although some opinions from stakeholders have been included in the draft, the ministry has kept it open for recommendations, if any, from anyone,’ industries ministry secretary in-charge Md Abdul Halim told New Age on Sunday.After fine tuning, the draft would be sent to the cabinet division within a short time and after getting approval from cabinet, the policy would be effective, he said.He expected that the gazette notification of the policy would be issued by March this year. The government has taken the initiative to formulate a policy to turn the leather sector into a sustainable, environment-friendly and competitive sector, the draft said.The policy would encourage local and foreign institutes to transfer and implement environment-friendly technology to ensure world class production in leather industry, it said.As per the draft, to ensure clean production the policy would take effective measure to produce value added products through recycle. The draft also emphasised the implementation of labour laws and safety standards in tanneries to present a bright image of the sector before the global brands and retailers.To ensure compliance, the draft policy also emphasised the introduction of corporate insurance social benefits to workers and to comply with environmental laws. The policy focuses on the establishment of modern slaughtering house and not allowing slaughter of animal out of the house for proper waste management. It is also for introducing bonded warehouse facilities for the leather sector.Under the policy, the government would support the sector to arrange regular showcase of leather and leather products in the country to attract foreign investors.The policy would support the sector to get cash incentive and facilities like readymade garment sector including loan from export development fund.The draft policy said that there would be a 40-member committee namely ‘Leather and Leather Products Development Policy Coordination Council’ chaired by industries minister and the body would be considered as the highest council for the policy structure.
