Readymade garments (RMG) workers on Wednesday demanded that the garment owners should pay wages and Eid bonus of all the workers before Eid-ul-Fitr by July 14, reports UNB. Thy came up with the demand from a rally in front of Jatiya Press Club, jointly organised by National Garments Workers Federation, Bangladesh Garments Sramik Karmachari Federation, Ekota Garments Federation, Garments Sramik Sanghati and Bangla Garments Sramik Federation. Addressing the rally, NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin said all the wages and arrears of the workers must be cleared by July 10 while the Eid bonus must be paid by July 14. He said no dilly-dallying of garments owners over paying wages, arrears and bonuses will be tolerated. Speakers also urged the government to take legal actions against garments owners who would fail to pay the dues, wages and bonuses before Eid.

Garment workers will go on Eid holidays in phases from July 14 to avoid heavy pressure of vehicles on highways ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul-fitar. The decision was taken at a coordination meeting held at Home Ministry yesterday with State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal where representatives of BGMEA, BKMEA and BTMEA were present. Briefing reporters after the meeting, the junior home minister said thousands of workers will leave Dhaka and its adjoining districts before Eid day for their native villages to celebrate the festival which will create a sever traffic congestion on the highways. To avert such situation, we requested the factory owners of special industrial belt in Dhaka, Gazipur, Naryangonj and Chittagong to allow Eid holidays to their workers from July 14 in phases. Leaders of the factory owners associations agreed with us and they said they would comply with the yesterday’s (Wednesday) meeting decision, the state minister for home said. He also said that the factory owners were also asked to give monthly salary and Eid bonus by July 10. Besides, a special committee, led by one Additional Secretary of Labour Ministry, has been formed to help the factory owners so that no unpleasant incident occur if any factory owner fail to pay salary and Eid bonus, Kamal added.

The export earnings from India rebounded in the just concluded fiscal year 2014-2015 and grew by 15 per cent after a negative growth in the previous fiscal year while the growth in export earnings from China abruptly slowed down in the last fiscal year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data. The export growth to China slowed down to 6 per cent in the FY15 compared with that of 62 per cent growth in the FY 2013-2014. In the July-June period of the FY15, Bangladesh’s exports to the USA also increased slightly by 3.5 per cent compared with that of the FY14, the data showed. EPB officials and an expert said the export earnings from India bounced back riding on an increase in exports of jute and jute goods, plastic goods and readymade garment items. Appreciation of the Bangladeshi currency taka against the India’s rupee, which suffered depreciation against the euro, also contributed to the recovery in export to the market, they said. On the other hand, the export growth to China was affected due to a slowdown in economic activities in that country. They, however, said that overall export earnings growth in the countries was affected in the year as political turmoil in the country and decline in the prices of RMG items on the global market hurt the export business. According to the EPB data, the export earnings from India in the July-June period in the last fiscal year stood at $527.16 million against $456.63 million in the FY14. In the FY 2012-2013, the export earnings had grown by negative 19 per cent in the market, EPB data showed. In the just concluded fiscal year, the export earnings from China stood at $791 million which was $746 million in FY14, the data showed. In the US market, Bangladesh exported goods worth $5.78 billion in the fiscal year 2014-2015 against goods worth $5.58 billion exported in the previous fiscal year. Policy Research Institute executive director Ahsan H Mansur said that political unrest in the country and exchange rate affected Bangladesh’s competiveness in the exports to these countries. The political uncertainty resulted in a diversion of a significant number of export orders to other countries, he said. The growth in export to the China market fell due to a slowdown in the economic growth in that country, he said adding that the Chinese economy grew only by 7 per cent in the last year which had grew by 10 per cent in the previous year. Exports from other countries to China also fell in the year, he said. According to the EPB data, the export of leather goods to China fell to $112 million in the year from $158 million in the FY14 while the export of RMG items, a major export item of Bangladesh, increased to $305 million from $242 million. In the case of Indian market, in the FY15 the Bangladesh’s exports of jute and jute goods increased to $90 million in the FY15 from $80 million, apparel items to $102 million from $95 million and plastic goods to $13 million from $5 million in the FY14. The exports of jute and jute products, and apparel items to the US market also increased slightly in the fiscal year compared with that of the FY14.

A court in Dhaka on Wednesday indicted 18 people, including building owner Sohel Rana, his parents, five government officials and two elected representatives, for breaching building construction law, which led to the Rana Plaza disaster. The senior judicial magistrate, Md Shahinur Rahman, asked the authorities to arrest six of 18 accused for not appearing in the court. The senior judicial magistrate also asked two ministries — the LGRD and Co-operatives, and Labour — to issue approvals to charge four government officials in another case filed for homicide and criminal conspiracy. The judicial magistrate set August 18 for the next hearing over the government approval in the murder case, while it would also hear on the implementation of the arrest order. In the case filed under Building Construction Act , the court issued arrest warrants against Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana’s mother Marjina Begum, the then Savar municipality’s chief executive officer Uttam Kumar Roy, the then Savar municipality’s engineer Mahbubur Rahman and its urban planner Farzana Islam, businessman Md Mahbubul Alam, Rezaul Islam and Nantu Contractor. The two accused are now in jail while the remaining 10 are now out on bail in the case. The court on the day also did not accept the charge sheet in the murder case, in response to an application filed by the prosecution. Twenty-four accused are absconding while four, including Sohel Rana, are now in jail and 13 accused are out of jail on bail in the case. Public prosecutor Anwarul Kabir Babul requested the court to ask the ministries concerned to issue approval to charge the four accused named in the case. Following the plea, the court directed the labour and LGRD ministries to give the approvals for their officials —Md Yusuf Ali, Shahudul Islam, Belayet Hossain and Awlad Hossain. On the morning of April 24, 2013, the eight-storey Rana Plaza, which had housed five clothing factories, a shopping mall and a bank, collapsed, leaving at least 1,137 people dead and about 2,000 injured and maimed. After the disaster, the police filed a case against the building owner, Sohel Rana, and the owners of the five clothing factories housed in the building. Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha filed another case against the Savar municipality officials and local elected representatives. On June 1, the Criminal Investigation Department submitted two charge sheets against 42 people, including Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana, his parents Abdul Khalek and Marjina Begum, in the two cases filed over the garment factory collapse.

Garment manufacturers, especially small and medium ones, will get $50 million in “affordable” loans from the IFC to remedy their factories up to standards set by international retailers, the global lender said.    The funding comes under the Corrective Action Plans (CAP) designed by the western retailers’ engineers with an avowed aim of making Bangladesh’s garment industry safer for workers. The IFC (International Finance Corporation), a member of the World Bank Group, announced Tuesday a comprehensive programme under which the amount will be disbursed through five local banks. In addition, the IFC signed separate cooperation agreements with Alliance and Accord that represent dozens of world’s leading garment brands and buyers. The programme is in addition to the support already provided by some individual brands to their suppliers, according to Accord and Alliance Dhaka offices. Earlier, both the groups had expressed their concern over slow progress in remediation which the manufacturers attributed to fund crisis that delayed fixing the problems. “Despite  a strong desire to improve worker safety, many factories have found it difficult to access the capital necessary to make the improvements necessary to meet buyers’ standards,” the IFC said in a statement issued Tuesday. Under the programme, the funding agency will give $10 million each to five Bangladeshi banks which will allow participating banks to increase lending to garment factories, specifically to improve their structural, electrical and fire (SEF) safety infrastructure. Prime Bank Limited has already signed up to the initiative, and four other Bangladesh banks are expected to follow in the coming weeks, the statement added. People involved in the programme said negotiations were going on with Brac, EBL, UCB and City banks in this regard. “Broad, innovative partnerships are necessary to improve the safety of workers in this critical industry,” said IFC CEO and EVP Jin-Yong Cai. “Banks, international buyers, and manufacturers have a shared interest in this issue because it’s indispensable to making Bangladeshi garment factories more competitive and sustainable.” The Accord and the Alliance will each contribute $250,000 to support the programme implementation. Together with the IFC, the Accord and the Alliance have both provided training to participating banks on the factory- remediation process and understanding the resulting SEF CAPs, and they are monitoring factory progress on compliance against these CAPs. In a separate statement Ellen Tauscher, Independent Chair of the Alliance, said: “We are pleased to join forces with the IFC to launch this initiative, which promises to provide much-needed support to factory owners, speed the process of implementing repairs and help protect millions of garment workers.” Access to financing is traditionally both cumbersome and expensive in Bangladesh, with most loans being difficult to secure, offered at prohibitively high interest rates and requiring short-term repayment, the Alliance said in its statement. “The financing programme is an important contribution to the Accord’s ongoing efforts to ensure necessary remediation at inspected factories and meets an express request of local industry,” Rob Wayss, Executive Director of the Accord, told the FE. The financing programme has the priority to support factories, particularly the smaller and medium-sized ones, who are in need of access to this type of affordable long-term financing, he added. Replying to a question, he said this credit facility will offer affordable interest rates of maximum 4.5 per cent and allow loans to be paid back over a period of three to five years. Welcoming the move, Md Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said though belated, both the groups have realised needs of the present situation. “The programme will help the factories to accelerate their remediation work, especially the SMEs–40 per cent of the total sector,” he added.

Bangladesh’s readymade garment exports displayed the poorest performance in six years with 4.1% rise in the just-concluded fiscal year while the country’s overall export growth also slumped to 13-year low.The RMG sector earned $25.49bn in the just-concluded fiscal year compared to $24.49bn in the previous year.However, the country’s largest export industry fell 5.20% short of export target which was set at $26.89bn, said Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data released yesterday.The knitwear export totalled $12.43bn, up by 3.13% from the previous fiscal’s $12.05bn.The woven products earned $13.06bn with 5% growth over the previous year’s $12.44bn.“We set a target of around $27bn, but political unrest failed us to reach it. If the situation was peaceful, the earnings would stand at $28bn,” said BGMEA vice president Shahidullah Azim.He said relocation of factories as part of safety initiatives had also cast a negative impact on the export growth.He sought low-cost fund from the government and buyers to relocate factories and implement the corrective action plans.Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) President Abdus Salam Murshedy also believed the long-lasting political turmoil, industrial accidents and rise in production cost while ensuring compliance matters were responsible for the slow down.He said the RMG exporters failed to attract buyers due to violent political programmes in the beginning of the second half of the fiscal.But Murshedy hoped the situation could be overcome if the budget was implemented and business people were provided with gas and electricity connections to establish new factories.Khondaker Golam Moazzem, additional research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said political unrest, fluctuation of demand for clothing products in export destinations due to economic slowdown and devaluation of euro against dollar acted as catalyst for the slow down in the RMG sector.On the other hand, the buyers might have placed less orders to Bangladesh due to lack of sufficient progress in compliance issues, and also due to political unrest, said Moazzem.He urged the sector people to increase productivity to deal with the production cost and to remain competitive in the global market.If the situation continued further, it would be very tough to reach the export target of $50bn by 2021, Moazzem said urging all stakeholders to be strategic to ensure better compliance and send a good message to the global buyers to overcome the situation.Bangladesh earned $31.19bn in the FY2014-15, which is 3.35% higher compared to $30.18bn in FY2013-14.Bangladesh set an export target of $33.2bn for the last fiscal year, but it failed to reach the target by around 6.03%. It earned $31.19bn.Leather product exports posted 3.78%  rise with $249m earning, while the leather footwear earning rose by 27.81% to $483.81m and other footwear earned $189.46m posting a 10.43% growth in the fiscal year.Home textile earned $804m with a 1.49% growth.Pharmaceutical and ships, boats and floating structure which can be the emerging export earners posted 4.91% and 3518% growth to $72.64 and $15.92 respectively.Among the major sectors, frozen foods witnessed 11% fall due to economic crises in eurozone and trouble in Russian markets.Shrimps, the lifeline of the sector also marked a 7.35% decline. Agriculture products seen 4% slump followed by leather by 21.36%, raw jute 11.73% and specialized textile 1.63%.

Bangladesh has earned US$ 124.73 billion by exporting readymade garments over the last six and half years, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said yesterday. The country earned the money by exporting apparel items to 140 countries from January, 2009 to May, 2015, he told the parliament, replying to a question raised by treasury bench member Didarul Alam (Chittagong-4).

Bangladesh earned US Dollar 124.73 billion by exporting readymade garments over the last six and a half years, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said in the city on Tuesday, reports BSS. “Bangladesh earned US Dollar 124.73 billion by exporting readymade garments to 140 countries of the world from January, 2008-2009 to May, 2014-2015,” he said in reply to a question raised by treasury bench member Didarul Alam (Chittagong- 4). Responding to another question raised by ruling party lawmaker Enamul Haque (Rajshahi-4), the commerce minister said the government has taken various plans to reduce Bangladesh’s trade gap with India, China and Pakistan. Tofail said India allowed duty-free access of all Bangladeshi products except tobacco and narcotics products from November 9, 2011 following the steps of the Bangladesh government to boost trade with India. He said the efforts for removing duty and non-duty barriers through discussion at different time and levels are underway. “Steps have been undertaken to get duty-free access of a huge number of goods from other SAARC countries under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA),” Tofail said. The commerce minister said Bangladesh is participating regularly in the international trade fairs in Guwahati, Kolkata, New Delhi, Shilchar, Mumbai, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar in India to familiarise the Bangladeshi products. “This trend would continue in future,” he said. Tofail Ahmed said Bangladesh is also participating regularly in the international trade fairs in China and other SAARC countries to raise export, familiarise products and expand market. “We are also continuing bilateral and multilateral discussion with different countries to develop our trade ties,” he said. Besides, Tofail said, measures have been taken to increase Bangladesh’s trade contact with the businessmen of China, India and Pakistan. Bangladesh has concluded its last financial year (2014-15) with average inflation of 6.41 per cent. During the last three years, the country registered lowest average annual rate of inflation in FY15. It was 7.35 per cent in FY14 and 6.78 per cent in FY13. However, on the monthly basis, inflation in June, the last month of FY15, rose slightly as it stood at 6.25 per cent, which was 6.19 per cent in May. “The inflation had soared a little in June due to the month of Ramadan,” Planning Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal told reporters while releasing the monthly consumer price index at a briefing at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar today. “The government had targeted to contain the annual rate of inflation within 6.50 per cent, and it was possible due to downtrend in fuel price and in other major items alongside stable exchange rate,” he added. The general inflation rate in July last fiscal was 7.04 per cent, that came down to 6.91 per cent in August, 6.84 per cent in September, 6.60 per cent in October, 6.21 per cent November, 6.11 per cent in December and 6.04 per cent in January. Then the general inflation rate soared in February to 6.14 per cent and to 6.27 per cent in March. Apart from the general rate of inflation, both food and non-food inflation rates also posted a rising trend. The food inflation at national level stood at 6.32 per cent in this June, up from 6.23 per cent in May, while the non-food inflation slightly increased to 6.15 per cent in June, which was 6.14 per cent in May. Besides, the inflation at urban level slightly increased to 6.91 per cent in June while it was 5.90 per cent at rural level. At rural, the food inflation also increased to 5.76 per cent in June, up from 5.66 per cent in the previous month, while the non-food inflation increased to 6.16 per cent in June as against 6.14 per cent in May. In urban areas, the food inflation increased to 7.64 per cent in June, up from 7.54 per cent in May. The non-food inflation, however, witnessed a static trend and it stood at 6.14 per cent in June which was also 6.14 per cent in last May. The national rate of wage index witnessed a 9.49 per cent growth in June with 9308.26 points which was 9238.11 point in May.

The country’s trade deficit – gap between export earnings and import payments – is set to cross $10 billion mark for the first time in the just concluded financial year 2014-15 after hitting an all-time high of $9.46 billion in the first 11 months of the year. The dismal performance of the country’s trade balance is the result of the lower export earning growth against the higher import payment, said economists and experts.Bangladesh Bank data showed that the trade gap in the first 10 months (July-April) of the FY15 was $8.49 billion which soared to $9.46 billion July-May. ‘With the current trend, the trade deficit is set to cross $10 billion mark for the first time in the remaining one month in FY15,’ a BB official told New Age. The trade deficit in July-May of FY15 is 53.16 per cent higher than that of $6.17 billion in the corresponding period of the FY14. BB data showed that the country registered a record gap of $9.32 billion in the FY12 after which the deficit decreased to $7 billion in FY13 and $6.80 billion in FY14. Former finance adviser to the interim government Mirza Azizul Islam on Tuesday told New Age that falling export growth of readymade garments, the main export product of the country, dented the overall earnings in July-May of the FY15 while import payment registered an increased trend during the period. He said that the country’s export sector lacked diversification in both products and foreign markets. He feared that the export earnings might continue the sluggish trend in months to come as the current fiscal year’s budget had not taken an initiative to diversify the products and markets. The export earnings registered a 2.83-per cent growth in the first 11 months of FY15 against 12.84-per cent growth in the same period of FY14. The export earnings stood at $27.76 billion in July-May against $27 billion during the same period of the FY14. The shipment of RMG products rose by 3.37 per cent in July-May compared with that of 14.83 per cent during the same period of the FY14. The import payments registered a 12.20-per cent growth in the first 11 months of FY15 compared with that of 9.77 per cent growth in the corresponding period of FY14. The import payments stood at $37.22 billion in July-May against $33.17 billion in the same period of FY14. Mirza Aziz said that the higher import growth was apparently good for the industrial sector, but the trend also raised suspicion of money laundering due to a lower private sector credit growth in recent months. He said, ‘The import growth was much higher in the first 11 months of FY15 considering its little impact on the country’s industrial sector as the businesspeople had not taken significant initiative to expand their business during the period due to political crisis.’ He feared that some of the importers might be involved in money laundering through over-invoicing. Because of slower export growth the current account balance registered a deficit amount of $2 billion in the first 11 months of FY15 against a surplus amount of $1.36 billion during the same period of FY14.Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman told New Age on Tuesday that the large deficit in current account balance was a concern for the country’s macro-economic situation.He said that the government should take initiative to increase export earnings and pick up the inward remittance to boost up the current account balance. He said that the government had set a target to achieve an export earning growth of 10 per cent in the FY15, but export earnings grew by only 3.35 percent putting adverse impact on the trade balance along with the current account balance. BB data showed that the net foreign direct investment increased by 20.41 per cent to $1.58 billion in the first 11 months of FY15 from that of $1.31 billion in the same period of FY14.

Myanmar’s garment manufacturers have signalled their opposition to a proposed national minimum wage of just over $3 (Tk 234) per day, claiming the increase it represents could force some factories in the vital economic sector to close. That works out to $90 (Tk 7,020) a month, according to bdnews24.com. In Bangladesh, the minimum monthly wage for a garment worker has been fixed at Tk 5,300. The apparel industry’s resistance to paying the proposed daily minimum wage drew a sharp rebuke from local labour groups, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). “The new minimum wage will still leave workers and their dependents just above the global severe poverty line of US$1.25 per person, and many will still struggle to make ends meet,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. The Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA), which represents 280 factories employing approximately 200 million workers met on July 2 after a June 29 announcement by Myanmar’s National Minimum Wage Committee proposing that the minimum wage be set at 3,600 kyats (US$3.24) – or 450 kyat per hour – for an eight-hour day. The committee consists of government officials as well as business people and worker representatives.