The future of Bangladesh’s garment sector is bright as the number of factories has gone up over the years and almost all of them are accredited and audited now, said a garment buying consultant from the Netherlands.“This is a big achievement for the country,” said Dhyana van der Pols, owner of Nash International, which advises 200 European garment retailers who source $200 million worth of apparel items from Bangladesh a year.So far, none of the other garment producing countries have been inspected by a third party agency. No other nation has voluntarily audited their factories, she said.As a result, retailers all over the world now consider Bangladesh to be one of the compliant nations, said van der Pols, who recently visited Dhaka to attend a seminar on sustainable sourcing of garment items. The Daily Star caught up with her on the sidelines of the seminar.Previously, the European and American buyers thought of China a one-stop shopping mall. But now, they have started viewing Bangladesh in the same light, as all their sourcing demand can be met here, she said. “It is not true that Bangladesh produces only the low-cost T-shirts and that it is a bottom-feeder. Bangladesh produces a lot of diversified products.”The retailers are also shifting orders to Bangladesh from China, which has lost its comparative advantage due to higher costs of production and shortage of skilled workforce.The experienced garment buyer went on to recommend Bangladesh to work on formalwear, swimwear and outdoor clothing as well as these items have high demand in the international market.About the transformation of the garment sector following the Rana Plaza collapse in April 2013, van der Pols said: “The changes are a miracle. The industry people have done everything for changing the industry.”Bangladesh has facilitated everything for restructuring of the garment sector, she said, adding that she herself spread the word on the sector’s positive transformation.“I went to different television shows in the Netherlands and spoke a lot on the progresses Bangladesh made after the Rana Plaza building collapse.”The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, the brands and the Western consumers have also realised the progresses that Bangladesh made is a miracle, according to van der Pols.Regarding fair wages, fair prices and fair business conduct, she said these are ethical issues that need everybody’s cooperation.In Bangladesh, the manufacturers are in fierce competition for getting more work orders from international retailers. “The internal competition is a problem for not getting fair prices from buyers.”Going forward, one of the big challenges for the sector is scaling up production to meet the higher volumes of work orders that would be diverted from China.Regarding some emerging garment manufacturing countries like Ethiopia and Myanmar, she said at present Ethiopia is exporting $100 million worth of garment, which is “very small”.Some international retailers and garment makers are trying to set up factories in Ethiopia but that will take time. “So, Bangladesh is in the international retailers’ map now and in the future.”She said Bangladesh has an edge over upstarts because of skilled workforce. “This is the biggest achievement of Bangladesh.” At present, Bangladeshi products get duty-free access to the European Union. But the facility would come to an end in 2021, when the country would graduate to the middle-income bracket.However, the EU will allow duty-free access to Bangladeshi products under the ‘GSP Plus’ scheme, but for that the country will have to comply with international standards for human rights, cut down corruption and improve its green credentials.“If Bangladesh loses the GSP Plus, business would totally disappear,” she said, citing the case of Sri Lanka, which lost its GSP Plus status 15-20 years ago and with it its garment trade. In case of Bangladesh, the GSP Plus status should be continued until 2025 or 2028 as by this time the industry would be mature enough, van der Pols said.At present, the EU, the US and Canada are Bangladesh’s main markets.But van der Pols advised Bangladesh to explore the Asian markets as well — particularly Japan, China and India — where the per capita consumption of clothing is rising due to the burgeoning middle-class.The size of India’s apparel market is $59 billion a year and it is expected to grow to a $120 billion-industry by 2030.  China’s domestic market size is $270 billion a year, which will soar to $600 billion by 2025.“So, Bangladesh has a very good opportunity in regional garment business as well.”

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association will draw the government’s attention to the activities inconsistent with the existing laws of the land, being carried out by two platforms of western buyers. The umbrella organisation for the country’s apparel exporters on Saturday took the decision at a board of directors meeting held at the BGMEA headquarters in the capital, Dhaka. The trade body will soon specify which activities of Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, the platform of European buyers, and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, the platform of North American buyers, are conflicting with the existing laws of Bangladesh. ‘We will place the issue before the government and the government would decide how it should be resolved,’ BGMEA president Siddiqur Rahman told New Age after the meeting. He said that board members told the meeting that many activities of Accord and Alliance were inconsistent with the laws of the country. ‘We will no longer accept activities beyond the existing laws and will draw attention of the ministry concerned to such activities. If necessary, we will appoint lawyer to address the issue,’ Siddiq said. The readymade garment sector leaders at the meeting also discussed the issue of formation of a committee to oversee the timely implementation of the corrective action plans in the supplier factories of Accord and Alliance as the two initiatives will expire in July 2018. The meeting observed that the government should form a body which will take charge of the post-inspection monitoring work in the RMG sector once the timeframe of Accord and Alliance ends in 2018. ‘If the government wants to carry out the post-inspection monitoring in the RMG sector through the Remediation Coordination Cell, the institution must be strengthened as soon as possible,’ a BGMEA leader said. After the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, North American retailers, including top brands Walmart and Gap, formed the Alliance and European retailers formed the Accord undertaking a five-year plan which set timeframes and accountability for safety inspections and training and workers’ empowerment programmes. The Accord has so far conducted initial inspections at 1,600 factories while the Alliance inspected 759 factories. At the same time, under the National Action Plan, the Bangladesh government with the collaboration of the International Labour Organisation inspected about 1,500 factories. During the inspection, 148 factories were sent to a government-set review panel for the decision as the inspection teams found critical safety issues in the units.Of the 148 factories, the review committee that comprises representatives from the government, Accord, Alliance, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and BGMEA shut 37 factories while closed 42 units partially. The Alliance, in its third annual report released this month, said that 55 per cent of its listed factories had completed high-priority repairs. But the listed factories finished 63 per cent of all required repairs, it said. The platform also asked its supplier RMG factories to conclude high-priority safety repairs by July 2018 to avoid suspension from the list of compliant suppliers of the group. In a recent report, the Accord said that approximately 67 per cent of safety hazards detected during its initial inspections at its supplier factories had been corrected. Due to a failure in making required progress in remediation, the Alliance so far has cut business relations with 104 supplier factories and the Accord has terminated business ties with 41 factories.

It may surprise many that local sales of interlining, a piece of fabric used in smartening garments, run into $120 million a year. It means interlining, however small it may be, is important. Globally; China is in a leading position in interlining business. Although the business of interlining in Bangladesh is not new, the volume is not too high as a small number of entrepreneurs invested in this segment.The interlining is a material used as an extra lining between the ordinary lining and the fabric of a garment. In Bangladesh, it is used as an accessory, mainly in the collars of shirts.There are five to six interlining factories across the country at present, said Basher A Khan, executive director of Osman Interlinings Ltd housed at Dhaka Export Processing Zone in Savar in an interview last week.It started its business as the agent of a Chinese company in 1994. Later, the company began its own business in a rented factory at the DEPZ in 2001, and moved into its new factory this year.Speaking at his factory, he described his company’s journey to become a green building in the small interlining business.“We received the LEED certification of green building in gold category from the United States Green Building Council last week. We are the first green building in the interlining business worldwide,” Khan said.Thanks to the eight-storey green building, the company can save 28 percent of energy and 46 percent of water. The factory harvests rainwater to use for production purposes to reduce groundwater consumption.“We have a 42,000-gallon capacity reservoir to harvest rainwater at the factory.”Green buildings have to be constructed following some special measures like leaving adequate space around the structure, reducing ground water consumption, saving energy and workplace safety.The construction of the building began in early 2014 and finished in December last year, Khan said. The factory has 120 workers; the number of workers is small because of the automated manufacturing system, he said.Currently, the company exports interlinings worth more than $1.5 million a month; it plans to expand its business in future.The company is also planning to produce value-added products such as interlinings for shopping bags and shoes.Khan’s company produces 1,000 different kinds of interlinings. Globally, more than 25,000 kinds of interlinings are produced for use in manufacturing apparel items, medical aprons, shoes, shopping bags and travel bags.Almost all the raw materials, like powder and chemicals, are imported mainly from China and Germany. “We have to use special kinds of chemicals, as interlinings are very important and sensitive for the customers,” he said.If any hazardous chemical is used, customers will complain about itching, he added.The company’s major customers include H&M, Aldi, Tema, Charles Vogele and Kappa. It is a concern of Concorde Garments Group headquartered in Dhaka. The group has garment factories in Mirpur and Ashulia in Dhaka.A total of 4,000 workers are employed in the group’s Lily Apparel and Concorde Garments, which mainly produce shirts and ladies’ tops. Concorde started its humble beginning at a rented house in Mirpur in 1981.  Currently, the group’s export is more than $91.8 million a year.

The gas crisis in the Konabari-Gazipur industrial belt will come to an end within a week as a local company is repairing the ruptured gas pipeline at Elenga point in Tangail. “The supply of gas through the repaired gas pipeline will resume within one week. The local company has almost completed its work,” said Mir Moshiur Rahman, acting managing director of state-owned Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company. Risal Mahmud, managing director of Pipeline Engineering and Associates Ltd (PEAL), which was assigned the repair work, said the gas pipeline will be ready for supplying gas by today. “If Titas wants, it can start supplying gas to the industrial belt immediately,” said Mahmud. The pipeline leakage has severely affected gas supply to the industrial area, which is dominated by large export oriented factories, he said. Titas Gas stopped the gas supply from the ruptured pipeline on October 3 and supplied gas via an existing abandoned 12-inch pipeline. However, the gas pressure was insufficient and hampered production at these factories, Mahmud added. Titas appointed PEAL to repair the pipeline within 20 days, he said. PEAL began work on October 19. “The current supply of gas is not adequate to run the machinery at the factories. Adequate pressure is required to run the machinery, especially the spinning mills,” said Faruque Hassan, managing director of Giant Group, a leading garments group at Shafipur in Gazipur. After the damage of the pipeline, Titas supplied gas to the industrial units by suspending supply to the fertiliser factories. Many factory owners have lost millions of dollars in loss of production in the last few days due to the disruption in gas supply, Hassan said. Exporters said they will face difficulties in shipping their products in time and might have to resort to expensive air shipments to meet the deadline. They might have to offer discounts too, if they miss the deadline. Factories at Konabari, Shafipur, Rajendrapur, Kashimpur, Mouchak, Mirzapur, Gazipur, Ashulia, Savar and Kaliakoir are the worst affected, said industry insiders. More than 1,200 textile and garment factories have either suspended their production or are running with electricity, said Siddiqur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. There are about 400 composite mills in those areas, according to Rahman. The spinning, dyeing and washing plants require a continuous supply of gas with adequate pressure.