Stock market data depicts a sorry picture of the textile and garment companies, depriving thousands of investors of expected dividends from the sector that accounted for 84 percent of Bangladesh’s exports last fiscal year. Analysing the data of 36 listed companies for 2011-2018 period, The Daily Star found that their net profits nosedived to Tk 341 crore in 2018 from over Tk 1,252 crore eight years ago. Entrepreneurs blamed higher cost of production, over capacity, competition, exchange rate and lower prices from international buyers for the situation. But an analyst raised questions about the quality of financial reports these companies make public. Data showed of the 36 listed textile and garment companies nine incurred losses last year. But all of them except one had logged profits in 2011. After 2011 another 19 textile companies have been listed on the DSE to take the tally to 55. An aggrieved investor said he bought some shares of Generation Next Fashions at Tk 8 per share against Tk 10 face value on October 1 last year seeing the company’s dividend paying trend, which is no less than 10 percent a year. The investor lost half of the share value in just one year and the price further fell to just Tk 2.4 a share on Thursday. “Now I don’t know how long it will take to get my investment back,” said the investor wishing not to be named. He is not alone; there are thousands of investors as public shareholders accounted for over 60 percent of the stakes in the company while sponsors shareholders have less than 14 percent shares. Conditions of the remaining companies are more or less the same as Generation Next as share price of 19 of the 55 firms trading at below their face value. Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said the listed companies’ data seem doubtful due to poor financial reporting, so it may not represent the whole sector. Many companies expanded their business seeing a lucrative growth in the sector and their sales volume soared and so did their revenue. “However, it is true that the clothing sector suffers for higher cost to meet compliance after Rana Plaza incident and the price of per unit dropped in the international market.” In 2013, the building collapsed in Savar on the outskirts of the capital, leaving at least 1,138 people dead and 2,500 others injured in the country’s deadliest industrial accident. Since then, local garment entrepreneurs put more than $1 billion to remediate the factories for preventing such tragedies in future. Overall, the sector is suffering from lower profits, said Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. The cost of production of apparel items increased 30 percent between 2014 and 2018. Furthermore, the minimum wage of garment workers has increased 51 percent since December last year, she said. Between fiscal years 2015-16 and 2018-19, the industry’s value addition has gone down 1.61 percent though apparel exports have increased from $28.10 billion to $34.13 billion during the period. “Competitive countries have devalued their currency but we don’t, so we are lagging behind in the competition,” Huq added. She also blamed the unplanned expansion in the industry for the retailers’ accepting low prices. As many as 39 percent of the garment manufacturers are selling garment items to buyers at prices lower than the production costs now, according to a survey of the Fair Wear Foundation, an Amsterdam-based organisation that works to improve labour conditions in garment factories. Textile companies’ main input is fuel and captive power, said Mohammad Ali Khokon, president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association. “The price of captive power has increased 435 percent since 2012.” The interest rate of the banking sector also rose, so bank loan-dependent companies are hurt by the higher interest rate, said Khokon, also the managing director of Maksons Spinning Mills. The price of product also fell in the last two years, which hurt the textile makers’ profit, he added. If the suppliers do not accept prices below their production costs, they will lose everything as they will have to pay the workers at the end of the month without any production in factories, industry insiders said. Textile sector’s performance is the worst in the market, so investors are disappointed with the sector, said a top official of a leading asset management company. At present, 15 textile companies out of the total 55 are ranked as junk stocks due to their failure to provide dividends or hold annual general meeting or shuttering of their factory. 

Female workers’ participation in workplaces in the country’s different sectors has declined for want of necessary support from the stakeholders, observed women rights activists. And, lack of necessary training and women’s inability to use advanced technologies at workplaces are also causes of it, they viewed. They came up with the views at an opinion-sharing meeting of women workers of the country’s different sectors, titled ‘Equal wage and security for women workers’. Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP) organised the event in the city on Friday. Jona Goswami, director (Programme advocacy and lobby) read out a statement presenting the decline in women’s participation in workplaces and describing the reasons behind. “At present 65 per cent female workers are employed in the country’s garment sector while it was 85 per cent years before,” read the statement. “Improper healthcare system, unhygienic toilets, job insecurity, not getting maternity leave, wage disparity, insufficient day-care facility and sexual harassment are among the causes for the decline in female workers’ participation in workplaces in Bangladesh,” she added. She suggested arranging separate transportation for women workers alongside effectively dealing with the above-mentioned inconveniences and shortcomings. She also emphasised full implementation of the Labour Act (Amendment) 2013 and formulation of a policy on female workers’ workplaces to address these issues. The women rights activists also noted that if women’s participation in workplaces increases, the country’s economy would see further growth. BMP secretary Maleka Banu said, “Women at all workplaces face harassment in similar ways and we all have to deal with these to establish their rights in all sectors.” “Women are playing active role in alleviating poverty and in the journey of economic development,” she added. Shamsunnahar Bhuiyan, MP, addressing the event as special guest said women still face violence in workplaces. Their unity is hardly seen in the garment sector. She called upon them to raise movement forging unity to establish all their rights at workplaces. Women workers from different sectors participated in the programme.

A group of US apparel retailers and importers has urged Bangladesh government and other stakeholders to support their platform Nirapon’s efforts to improve worker safety in the country’s readymade garment industry. Nirapon has been formed this year by North America based 23 brands and retailers, including Walmart. Majority of them were the signatory of Alliance that inspected fire, electrical and structural integrity of some 700 garment factories and remediated the flaws in last five years after the Rana Plaza building collapse and folded its operation in last December. “…we are very concerned with reports coming from Bangladesh of calls to suspend Nirapon, an organization which provides the brands the assurance they need that workers in Bangladesh are being protected,” Rick Helfenbein, president and chief executive officer of American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), said in a letter to the Prime Minister. At a point when Bangladesh is poised to take advantage of the opportunities presented by today’s global market and expand, that growth is threatened by efforts to hinder the work of Nirapon and its transparent, independent, brand?backed commitment to worker safety, the letter reads. AAFA, representing more than 1,000 world famous brands, deems worker safety as critical, said their industry’s top priority is to ensure that all workers in our supply chains – regardless of the country or region where we operate – work under safe, ethical, and humane conditions. “Nirapon’s critical work provides this much?needed assurance to brand,” Rick Helfenbein said, adding Nirapon, the successor to the Alliance, was created by brands to sustain six years of worker safety progress in Bangladesh. Brands believe Nirapon plays a critical role in further developing the local capacity both in the factory and in the sector, and building the will, to sustain worker safety in Bangladesh well into the future. Nirapon’s role does not conflict with the work by your government and other key stakeholders to improve worker safety. In fact, Nirapon’s efforts are complementary and mutually reinforcing with these initiatives, the group said. It added that Nirapon’s work not only puts millions of lives at risk but undermines brands’ confidence that the great progress made in Bangladesh on worker safety will be sustained today, tomorrow, and well into the future. “Efforts to ensure worker’s safety cannot be stopped,” it urged the government and other key stakeholders including Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association to fully support Nirapon and facilitate its protection of Bangladeshi workers. The High Court last month imposed a six-month ban on activities of Nirapon following a writ petition filed by a local garment factory. Earlier on September 29, at a views exchange meeting of BGMEA, apparel markers raised concern over the activities of Nirapon alleging that it had been creating confusion over safety standards and adding new cost burden in the name of monitoring and training. They also alleged that Nirapon was creating market for service providers, especially for local training providers and qualified assessment firms, which the manufacturers could not afford after investing huge amount of money in the industry to ensure workplace safety in last five years.