Bangladesh should launch the National Employment Injury Insurance Programme to bring all factory workers under insurance coverage, said Srinivas B Reddy, country director for International Labour Organisation.At present, only 25 workers of each factory enjoy insurance benefits — and they are chosen randomly. But under the proposed programme, all workers will be includedThe insurance, which will be mandatory for all factories, will cover health, unfortunate death and other workplace accidents, and factory owners will need to pay less than Tk 60 as premium for each worker every month.“We have to learn from the faults of the Rana Plaza. We have to integrate the workers with the national system. We have to look to the future,” he told The Daily Star in an interview.Of the 1,138 workers that died in the Rana Plaza collapse two years ago, the families of only 100 of them received insurance benefit worth Tk 1 lakh each. The ILO country director also touched upon the issues of compensation disbursement to the victims, imparting financial know-how to them to ensure best use of the money, workplace safety and so on.He said every victim of the Rana Plaza has already received 70 percent of their compensation amount and the remaining payment will be disbursed to them soon. So far, a total of Tk 126 crore, or $16.4 million, has been disbursed to 4,969 victims or their families as compensation over the last two years. A total of $24 million has been deposited in the Rana Plaza Trust Fund, but the fund is still short of $6 million. Initially, the trust fund aimed to collect $40 million, but the target was later brought down to $30 million after reluctance from many international retailers and donors to follow through on their commitments. He said the ILO has been offering training to the surviving victims and dependants of the deceased on how to make the best use of their money. Officials of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) have already imparted trainings to some batches of compensation beneficiaries over the last one year.Regarding the progress of workplace safety in the garment sector, he said the country has improved a lot in that area since the ill-fated event on April 24, 2013, as the government and private sector entrepreneurs have taken a lot of positive initiatives.Reddy went on to recommend the government to strengthen the capacities of RAJUK, the newly-formed Department of Inspection of Factories and Establishments and the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence such that they can continue with their safety improvement activities in factories. He also suggested for building long-term partnerships with the trade unions for sustainability of the garment business in the country. “Allowing 305 trade unions in the factories within one and a half years is a good sign of practising trade unionism in the country.”“Now, Bangladesh needs to launch social dialogues involving trade union leaders, retailers, government officials, rights groups and owners to avoid any misunderstanding in the sector.”Reddy said the country has a very bright future in garment business as it has successfully navigated the troubled waters after the Rana Plaza collapse. “I am very optimistic that Bangladesh’s garment sector will continue to grow, as very positive trends are already being seen in the form of higher export volumes despite odds like Rana Plaza.”

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/give-insurance-coverage-all-factory-workers-ilo-country-director-79837

Country’s apparel traders seek to retain the manual system alongside automated one until efficient realtime update of export data is ensured in the electronic export mechanism. They noted that the relevant data are not being uploaded instantly by the customs or the central bank after export processing. As such, the exporters fear, fully automated export system could delay shipment of goods. Currently, the central bank is uploading the e-EXP data thrice a day and the mechanism is linked with the customs automated system. Leaders of the apex apparel body, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), made this proposal to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) at a meeting Sunday. The NBR arranged the meeting to discuss the launch of online export system, codenamed e-EXP, to make export procedure speedy and automated. The e-EXP was scheduled to be launched in full swing on February 18, 2015 as the revenue board and the Bangladesh Bank had completed test run. Under the system, authorised dealer banks will upload the export documents on Bangladesh Bank’s foreign-exchange-transaction-monitoring dashboard. The central bank will forward those to the ASYCUDA World System of the Customs after verifying the authenticity of these documents. Customs officials will process bill of export in line with the online data and release the exports for export. BGMEA president Atiqul Islam said they were facing problem in processing export documents smoothly due to absence of realtime update data in customs Asycuda world system. “It has been found that amendment of export data is not available in the system, making the export process lengthy,” he said. He underscored the need for awareness building and training to make exporters familiar with the latest system. Customs officials said BB was yet to launch realtime updating system of the data to send into the customs system Bangladesh Bank joint director Anisur Rahman said tender had already been invited to install the system of real-time update which would be completed shortly. To resolve the problem, the NBR formed a committee headed by the NBR member (customs policy) to prepare a time-bound action plan. At the meeting, NBR chairman Nojibur Rahman said the committee, comprising representatives from the NBR, BGMEA, BKMEA and Bangladesh Bank, would work out its action plan within a week. Currently, e-L/C system is in full-scale operation, making L/C opening transparent. Meanwhile, the NBR held another meeting Sunday with the facilitators of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). The NBR chairman chaired the meeting that discussed settlement of unresolved court cases of income tax, VAT and customs wing, involving a hefty amount of Tk 280 billion, through ADR. Former adviser of caretaker government Tapan Chowdhury, former NBR member Ali Ahmed, ACI group managing director Anis Ud Dowla and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) adviser Manzur Ahmed attended the meeting and gave their suggestions for popularizing the system. NBR members Begum Jahan Ara Siddiqui, Kalipada Halder and Khandaker Aminur Rahman also attended the meeting.

Source: https://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/03/30/86857

The life of a Bangladeshi garment factory worker is not an easy one, but the new research by the University of Washington (UW) suggests something else. The new study indicates that access to such factory jobs improves the lives of young Bangladeshi women, motivating them to stay in school and lowering their likelihood of early marriage and childbirth. The April 2013 collapse of a commercial garment factory building that killed more than 1,100 people thrust the industry into a harsh spotlight and brought attention and concern from human rights groups. But amid the hardships, the new findings show that there is a quiet upside of the factory work for many Bangladeshi women. Economist Rachel Heath of the University of Washington and co-author A. Mushfiq Mobarak of the Yale University School of Management studied data on school enrollment and marriage and childbirth outcomes from 1,395 households in 60 Bangladeshi villages in the year 2009. The study released last month found that girls between 12 and 18 years old who have lived in the proximity of a garment factory for about six years — the average time studied — were 28% less likely to be married than those living in villages in the same district that were not close to a factory. The girls who live near a factory tend to have 1.5 more years of education than their brothers when surveyed. This represents a 50% increase in girls’ educational attainment over villages without a garment factory nearby. The girls and young women who are exposed to factory jobs when they are 10 to 23 years old are 79% more likely to work outside their home before marriage. Overall, girls are 7.2 percentage points more likely to be enrolled in schools when factories open near their village. This effect is especially strong among young girls, 5 to 9 years of age. They also found that in the areas surveyed, the demand for education generated through manufacturing growth in Bangladesh accounts for more growth of educational opportunities for girls than the Female Secondary School Assistance Programme, a large-scale government-funded programme to encourage female schooling “We document the likelihood of marriage and childbirth at early ages drops sharply for girls when they gain exposure to the ready-made garment sector,” said the report. “In summary, access to factory jobs significantly lowers the risk of early marriage and childbirth for girls in Bangladesh,” Heath and Mobarak wrote in the report. A small negative effect to factory job access on education also was found: Unlike the positive effect for those younger girls, those who were 17-18 years old were slightly more likely to leave school for factory employment. “Of course, to say the industry has had positive effects does not deny that there have been serious tragedies,” Heath said. “We think that increased monitoring of conditions inside the factories can allow Bangladesh to reap the benefits of these jobs while minimising the safety risks of working in them.” The results, the researchers write, also provide one explanation, unexplored until now, for accelerated gender equity in education in Bangladesh, “thus generating policy implications for other countries interested in emulating Bangladesh’s success.” The ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh has grown tremendously in the last 30 years and now accounts for more than 80% of the country’s exports and there are about 40 lakh such workers in Bangladesh, 80% of whom are women, according to Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Source: https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2015/mar/29/study-rmg-jobs-help-lower-child-marriage-rate#sthash.C1pmR9fu.dpuf

The agro-processing sector in the country has the potential to create a large market like that of readymade garments (RMG) at home and abroad if necessary help from the government is ensured. Speakers made the observation at the inaugural session of a day-long training on improvement of production in small and medium agro-processing industries of the members of Bangladesh Agro-Processors’ Association (BAPA) in the city on Saturday. The BAPA and the Agro-Products Business Promotion Council (APBPC) jointly organised the training, said a press release. About 40 members of BAPA, who are agro-SME entrepreneurs based in Dhaka, took part in the training programme. Senior Vice President of BAPA Mohammad Sahab Uddin spoke at the inaugural session as chief guest with General Secretary of BAPA Raju Ahmed in the chair. In his address, the chief guest said the training was a timely step. People in the country were now getting interested in taking ready food items. It increased the demand in the agro-food sector. “But the agro-processing suffers from lack of skills, experience and appropriate technology. The sector has the potentials like that of the RMG of Bangladesh. If the government increases its supports for us and if we can ensure quality of products the sector can expand markets at home and abroad,” he observed. He said that at the training the barriers to growth of the sector needed to be discussed and those should be identified for drawing attention of the government to the solution. In his address, the BAPA general secretary said that now the number of exporters and competitors in the agro-processing sector is higher than when it started its journey in the nineties. Referring to the recently passed safe food law, he urged the authorities concerned to be cautious about any misuse of the law. He said if the SME entrepreneurs are harassed in the name of law enforcement, then the objective of the law would not be achieved.

Source: https://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/03/29/86707

Readymade garments (RMG) worth Tk 42 billion (4,200 crore) have become stocklot due to the ongoing political troubles marked by frequent hartal and blockade, according to the research cell of the apparel exporters’ association. The apparel exporters missed the shipment deadlines fixed by several global business partners resulting in the buildup of the stocklots worth Tk 42 billion, according to the BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association). “The apparel industry is seriously affected by the political turmoil and countrywide blockade”, Md Shahidullah Azim, vice president of the BGMEA, told the FE. The BNP-led 20-party alliance has been enforcing the countrywide transport blockade since January 6 last amid frequent hartals to press home their demands. He said due to the countrywide blockade the exporters could not transport their products to seaports for shipment in time. He said: “There is a timeframe when we get work orders, and if we fail to meet the schedule, then the global buyers cancel their work orders or offer discounted prices on the products”. He said according to their observation over the last 81 days of blockade RMG stocklots to the tune of more than Tk 42 billion were created as a number of foreign buyers cancelled their shipment orders. Mr Azim said the global business partners were not only cancelling their orders but also postponing scheduled visits. The developments have been taking its toll on fresh work orders. He said in last two months representatives from global buyers including Charles Vogele, G-Star Raw, Jack and Jones, Oliver, River Island, H&M, C&A, PVH and GAP of the US and EU countries cancelled their scheduled visits as they were not interested in coming here for the political turmoil. Managing Director of Eastern Apparels Ltd Nasir Uddin Chowdhury said the RMG sector is suffering as the supply chain has been disrupted due to the blockade. The backward linkage industries of the RMG sector-accessories, washing, dyeing, printing and packaging-had also been severely affected, ultimately putting an adverse effect on the sector. He said the woven industry mostly depends on import of raw materials, but during the strikes they could not import any goods from abroad. Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Exporters’ Association of Bangladesh (EAB), said in last 81 days their shipments by sea declined by nearly 50 per cent. He said hartals and blockade were like cancer for the RMG sector as the political turmoil affected their supply chain. He said in recent times their liabilities with banks and financial institutions have only gone up as many work orders were yet to be met. He said most of the exporters send their products by sea but for the blockade and hartal they could not ship their export items. An official of Biman Bangladesh Airlines said in last 34 days more than 350,000 tonnes of goods were shipped by air, up 35 per cent in last two months.

Source: https://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/03/29/86716

Fashion lovers’ preference for leggings has opened up new opportunity for local exporters, with orders booming for close-fitting knit pants in the last two years, industry insiders said. They said local knit makers are looking to expand capacity to cope with the increasing demand of leggings. More than 600 factories running around the capital Dhaka and the port city Chittagong are making this product, equally popular among males and females. “We are now the second largest exporter of leggings in the global market after China due to quality product and competitive price” AKM Salim Osman, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) told the FE. He said legging is a knit product, made from cotton, nylon or polyester blend, and it could also be made from wool, silk and other materials. “American and European people are driving the sales of our laggings,” Mr Osman said. He said competitive wage rate, easily trainable local workforce and entrepreneurial skill and government policy support have been helping the legging segment to grow. Leggings are worn by both men and women during exercise, but women usually wear them whenever they like, he said. The contribution of woven and knit garment is almost similar in export figures- 41 per cent and 39 per cent respectively- out of total export. The country’s knitwear industry is now almost self-sufficient in fabric and yarn, driving the legging sub-sector’s growth. For leggings, exporters said, local entrepreneurs have been providing more than 90 per cent fabric out of the total requirement. The BKMEA data showed for better quality and competitive price range, international brands from roughly 90 countries including Charles Vogele, G-Star Raw, Jack and Jones, Oliver, River Island, H&M, C&A, PVH and GAP are sourcing legging product. AH Aslam Sunny, vice president of BKMEA said in recent times, they have observed that demand for denim pants has been decreasing in the US and other countries, but the legging consumption is increasing, helped by the product’s comfortable feature. Mr Sunny said Bangladesh has become the world’s second largest leggings exporter after China, shipping around $ 1.62 billion worth products in July-February period of the current fiscal. He said in countries, where winter lasts long, leggings are getting popular compared with tropical nations, thus helping to boost exports of the product. He said the local company producing legging fabric as a result the manufacturers don’t have to import which is helping to capture the increasing demand to international markets. He said leggings are available in various colours and also have diversified designs, for which the product’s popularity is increasing. M Jamal Uddin, a fashion expert and associate professor of Knitwear Manufacture and Technology (KMT) of BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology (BUFT) said fashion is changing and laggings are especially favourite to females as they are comfortable to wear In recent times, not only ladies, but also gents are increasingly turning to leggings because the wear is flexible, suitable for casual physical activities such as walking, hiking or gardening, replacing the old standby, sweatpants. He said 2015 is going to be a versatile, colourful year in fashion and wear of knitted leggings will be a growing trend for the upcoming winter season. He said the latest addition to fashion trends is denim leggings, which have greater stretch than non-denim products.

Source: https://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/03/25/86338

The Human Rights Watch has observed that the lack of supply chain transparency by the brands was a key reason for not addressing the problems at Rana Plaza before the catastrophe happened. “Brands’ lack of supply chain transparency was a key reason why the problems at Rana Plaza were not addressed,” said the New York-based rights watchdog in an article published in its website yesterday. The HRW noted that unions and labour rights groups gathered brand labels of the clothes produced in the destroyed factories from the rubble, and demanded that those brands contribute to the compensation fund for the victims and support broader reform measures. HRW Germany Director Michalski said: “German clothing brands should be leading the way globally in demanding their suppliers respect workers’ rights and that factory environments meet international standards for safety.” “For their part, German shoppers should demand that brands make it clear where products are made and under what conditions so they can make fully informed consumer decisions,” he said.

Source: https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/mar/28/hrw-brands-lack-transparency-kept-bd-rmg-problems-unaddressed

Garment workers torched a bus at Zirani Bazar in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, this morning after the vehicle hit and injured two of their fellows.One of the injured, Shamim Hossain, a worker of Ha-Meem Group was admitted to Enam Medical College Hospital, while the other whose name could not be known immediately received first aid at a local hospital, police and hospital sources said.The accident took place near the workshop of Uttara Motors Limited in the morning, said Khandakar Rezaul Hasan, officer-in-charge of Joydebpur Police Station.The driver was allegedly driving his vehicle on the wrong side of road when he hit the two victims, our Savar correspondent reports quoting the OC said.Hearing the news, the aggrieved readymade garment workers from nearby factories rushed to the spot and vandalised and set fire to the Pabna-bound bus of Abir Enterprise around 8:00am, said Mustafa Kamal, OC of Ashulia Police Station.The fire partially gutted the bus before a firefighting unit rushed in and put out the flame.None was arrested in this regard.Road communication on the Dhaka-Tangail highway was suspended for an hour following the incident, the OC said.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/country/bus-torched-2-rmg-workers-hurt-gazipur-road-crash-73456

FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed urged the visiting trade delegation of Vietnam to allow duty-free and quota-free access for the Bangladeshi products to their market. “Despite our close and long-standing bilateral relations, the trade volume between the two countries has not reached its desired level. So we call for 100% duty-free and quota-free access for Bangladeshi goods,” Bangladesh’s apex trade body chief said at a meeting with the high-profile delegation yesterday. The delegation led by Vietnam’s Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade, Hoang Quoc Vuong met Kazi Akram at the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) office in the city. The visit of the seven-member team aims to explore trade and investment opportunities here in a bid to widen bilateral trade ties. “It is clear that our trade balance is hugely in favour of Vietnam. In this context, trade facilitation has become necessary to resolve the non-tariff barriers like certification requirements and important licensing system for Bangladeshi exports,” said FBCCI president.  “We are very much hopeful that the joint committee on trade will address these issues.” Akram invited the Vietnamese businesses and enterprises to visit Bangladesh and explore the market and investment opportunities firsthand. He said Bangladeshi business people are eager to increase cooperation in trade and investment with Vietnam. Vietnamese Deputy Minister Hoang Quoc Vuong said the bilateral trade between the two countries is now modest. He said direct Dhaka-Hanoi air link and simplification of visa processing could enhance the relation. In the first eight months of the current fiscal year, Bangladesh earned $35.70m from exports to Vietnam. In the last fiscal year, Bangladesh exported products worth nearly $56m to the Asian country, while imports value amounted to $582m. Bangladesh imports salt, sulphar, earth and stone, plastering materials, lime and cement, man-made filaments, iron and steel and fertiliser from Vietnam. Export goods to Vietnam include fish, molluscs, medicine, oil seeds, grain, fruits, rubber, raw hides and skin, special woven and other several items.

Canada to extend helping hand to Bangladesh’s RMG sectorCanadian High Commissioner in Dhaka Benoit Pierre Laramee, BGMEA President M Atiqul Islam, Vice President (Finance) Reaz-Bin-Mahmood and Director M Moshiul Azam, seen at a meeting with the leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association at the BGMEA Bhaban in the city on Monday. Canadian High Commissioner in Dhaka Benoit Pierre Laramee said that the government of Canada will extend its helping hand to Bangladesh’s readymade garment sector for ensuring the country’s sustainability in development and reaching the goal of $50 billion export by the year 2021. ‘Canada is providing its support in policy making towards the development of Bangladesh’s RMG sector. It provided duty free access to Bangladeshi apparel products to its country to help the industry advance’, he said adding the Canadian government will continue its support to Bangladesh’s RMG industry. The Canadian High Commissioner was addressing a meeting with the leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) at the BGMEA Bhaban in the city. BGMEA President M Atiqul Islam, Vice President (Finance) Reaz-Bin-Mahmood (Sumon) and Director M Moshiul Azam (Shajal) were, among others, present at the press briefing. Appreciating Bangladesh’s progress in the RMG sector, the Canadian envoy has emphasised on ‘effective and meaningful’ social dialogue among industry, government and workers for its further growth. ‘The effective and meaningful social dialogue will help ensure a culture of safety, transparency and accountability,’ the high commissioner said. He also put due emphasis on the necessity of ending the remaining tasks needed to make the sector developed with social responsibility