The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) again asked its member factories to provide information on foreigners working in the country’s ready-made garment (RMG) industry. The BGMEA issued a circular on April 29, seeking the foreign personnel’s information on an emergency basis. It is necessary to identify local skill gap for sustaining the growth of RMG industry, and to know especially how many foreigners are working here and in which posts, the circular read. It also asked for other information, including foreigners’ name, post, duration and nature of work (temporary or regular), nationality and their monthly salary. When asked, Dr Rubana Huq, the BGMEA president, said they will repeatedly remind their member factories until they provide the information. It is also important to ensure transparency in the sector, she noted. In October 2015, the BGMEA asked its members to provide lists of the foreign staff working in their companies to the trade-body. The BGMEA’s move came, as the law-enforcement agencies beefed up security for the foreigners, living in Bangladesh, following the murders of two foreign citizens then in Dhaka and Rangpur, sources said. But most of the RMG factory owners did not respond to the call, and only about 50 factories provided information to the apex apparel body, they added. According to the BGMEA’s official website, some 4,500 factories are members of the association. The industry insiders opined that thousands of foreigners are engaged in RMG sector, including in garment factories, buying houses and local liaison offices of global buyers and brands. The foreigners, mostly from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, South Korea and some European and African countries, are working in Bangladesh. Besides RMG, they are also engaged in IT and some other manufacturing industries. But many of these foreign employees are illegally staying in Bangladesh, even after expiry of their work-permit. On the other hand, many of the garment factory authorities are not interested to provide the list of their foreign employees to the BGMEA, they added. Three government agencies – the Board of Investment (BoI), currently the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), the NGO Affairs Bureau, and the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) – issue work permits for the foreigners. However, there is no integrated list of foreigners, working in Bangladesh, for lack of coordination among the government agencies concerned. According to the industry people, foreign employees are mostly holding key posts, like – merchandiser, quality controller, designer and marketing officer in buying houses and liaison offices, along with technician at washing and dyeing units. If the country could employ its own skilled manpower in these foreigners’ positions, a huge amount of foreign currency could be saved while more employment opportunities for local people could be created, they added. Sources said minimum US$ 5.0 billion in total flows out of the country annually due to hiring of foreign nationals in addition to reduction in job opportunities for local people.
