According to a BGMEA survey, the Bangladesh ready-made garment (RMG) industry has been increasingly implementing new business models or creative plans to resolve the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study, titled “A Pathway to Manage Private Sector Impact on Bangladesh National Priority Indicators (NPIs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” also revealed that the RMG industry not only contributed to economic development, but was also directly involved in the achievement of nine SDGs. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Reporting Initiative collaborated on the publication of the study (GRI). The report demonstrated how the RMG sector was not only contributing to the country’s macroeconomic success, but also to the achievement of NPIs and SDGs by creating jobs, promoting workforce healthcare, investing in workforce upskilling, recycling resources, and increasingly using renewable energy.According to the study, about 13% of the surveyed RMG factories furloughed employees due to financial losses suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Staff with COVID were found in 24% of the factories, and they were able to return to work in an average of 25 days after receiving coronavirus negative test results. According to the results, all of the participating factories had an environmental management system in place, and 42% of them had set measurable targets for reducing electricity, waste, and resource use by 2.0 to 15% over the next three years.
