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

In the wake of increasing demand for green products globally, experts yesterday suggested framing rules for making the textile industry environmental complaint for enhancing its competitiveness and sustainability. They also made a set of recommendations, including giving financial or fiscal incentives to encourage entrepreneurs to low-cost cleaner production practices and making aware that the reduction of energy consumption can be a real cost-cutter.  The recommendations were made at a seminar on “Legal and Regulatory Issues Related to Environmental Sustainability of the Textiles Sector,” organised jointly by Policy Research Institute (PRI) and International Finance Corporation at the PRI conference room.  Speaking at the function, Environment and Forest Minister Anwar Hossain Manju said his ministry had put its best efforts to improve environment in the country. “There are lots of regulations but effective implementation of them is important to reduce pollution,” he said. He expressed disappointment that the water supplied by the government was not drinkable, which is “unfortunate.”    BGMEA President Atiqul Islam said ensuring quality and environmental matters in the factories is increasingly becoming a global issue. “This means if any of the two is missing, you are simply out of business.” “But it is easy for big factories but not for small factories to address the environmental pollution, which is a challenge.” Atiqul Islam added the textile industry uses ground water as it contains less chlorine. He laid emphasis on financial support at lower interest for implementing the environmental issue.  Senior environmental adviser to GIZ in Bangladesh Tanuja Bhattacharjee said rules and proper guidelines are necessary to make textile industry competitive as environmental sustainability is becoming an increasingly important issue in international arena.   “It is high time to look at the issue so that we can set example before the world,” she said. She said GIZ is going to launch mobile testing water wastage programme by June next to identify the level of environment pollution in the textile industry.   Assistant Chief of Ministry of Environment and Forest, Khalid Hassan said the ministry is in the process of enacting Land Zoning Act to help make cluster textile industry outside of the city. Chief Operating Officer of Comfit Composite Limited, Md Kawser Ali described that how his company had reduced use of water by adopting environment-friendly technology. “Use of water has fallen to 50 litres from 180 litres for cleaning per kilogram fabric. ” PRI Executive Director Ahsan H Mansur emphasised the need to address the environmental issue before being late for keeping the environment clean for generations to come. He presented a paper at the seminar putting a number of recommendations, including differentiating water tariffs based on locations, strengthening enforcement and monitoring, tax and duty rationalisation for encouraging environmentally-friendly investment goods and for discouraging hazardous chemicals. The paper said although data on the extent of washing dying and finishing firms with effluent treatment plants (ETPs) are not readily available, the perception of experts is that the coverage is very low at around 30%.  Without the full coverage with ETPs along with strict enforcement of rules, the water pollution could not be addressed, it said.   An assessment of four firms shows that 3 of 7 best practices cost less than Tk4.1 lakh each, two of them cost almost nothing.  None requires more than 15 months to recoup the costs and the improvements could reduce water and energy consumption by up to 25% as well as reduce chemical use significantly, according to the findings.

The government and International Labour Organisation-led safety inspection of the readymade garment factories under National Tripartite Plan of Action is being hindered due to non-cooperation of factory owners and inconsistency in information including factory location and contact numbers. Recently, the ILO informed the government that they found incorrect contact information of 666 factories in the list provided by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association. They also alleged that the authorities of at least 62 factories in the list were not cooperating to conduct safety inspections in the units while authorities of 508 factories claimed that their units remained close. After the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garments workers, in April 2013, the EU retailers formed Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh while the North American retailers formed Alliance for Bangladesh Workers Safety. Both the initiatives launched inspection programmes in the Bangladeshi RMG factories from where their members procure products and the initiatives completed their primary safety assessments in their listed over 1,900 factories. The government in association with the ILO announced a separate inspection programme for rest of the garment factories which were not on the lists of Alliance and Accord and which were mainly engaged in subcontracting. According to the ILO officials, the Accord and Alliance have so far inspected at least 1,952 factories out of a total 4,271 BGMEA and BKMEA member factories. The sources said that rest of the BGMEA and BKMEA member factories were supposed to be inspected under the ILO initiative and their number is over 2,300. Out of 2,300, about 100 factories remained closed for long and already 756 units have been inspected up to date, he said. According to the ILO officials, the initiative has set deadline of April 30 to complete initial safety assessments in its 100 per cent listed factories. A BGMEA source said that they have received lists from the ILO of those factories where inconsistency in contact information were found and who were not willing to go for safety inspections. ‘We informed all our members once again to co-operate with the inspection teams and it is mandatory for all member factories to go for safety inspection,’ he said. Based on the ILO list, they have conducted investigation on some factories and found that some of the factories have been closed, but not all the 508 units. A few factory owners said that they have insignificant volume of orders and often their business remained closed due to lack of orders and some of the factories remained closed and changed contacts but did not inform the associations. Syed Ahmed, inspector general of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, said that they will take a move to identify how many factories in the list were closed and to know the latest location and contract information of the factories. ‘We will serve notice to the factories which are unwilling to co-operate with inspection teams and our factory inspectors will try to bring them under inspection,’ he said. Despite repeated attempts, if the factories do not allow inspection teams the government would take legal action against them, Syed said. ‘Though the ILO-set target to complete its inspection by April 30, it may not be possible as some problems like unwillingness of owners to carry out the inspection and inconsistency in information will have to be addressed,’ he said. The ILO officials, however, said earlier that the BGMEA and BKMEA collected details of those factories that provided incorrect contract information and sent those to the ILO, but the success rate was very slow.

Toxic discharges from the textiles, especially from dyeing and finishing factories, are contaminating both surface and ground water with serious consequences on life and environment. Speakers at a seminar in Dhaka Saturday deplored such unscrupulous discharge of untreated life-threatening industrial wastes and highlighted the urgency of preventive government steps to stem the rot.  They specifically suggested strict and effective monitoring of import and distribution of harmful chemicals and rationalisation of taxes and duties for encouraging production of environment-friendly goods and discouraging use of such hazardous chemicals. The private think-tank Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) organised the seminar on ‘Legal and Regulatory Issues Related to Environmental Sustainability of the Textile Sector’ in collaboration with the IFC (International Finance Corporation)   Environment and Forests Minister Anwar Hossain Manju attended the programme as chief guest while BGMEA president Atiqul Islam was special guest. PRI Executive Director Ahsan H Mansur presented the keynote paper on the subject, identifying textiles as a major contributor to water pollution and scarcity impacting on health, food production and other economic sectors. According to Mr Mansur, the textile sector in Dhaka currently consumes 1.5 trillion litres of groundwater annually to produce 5 million tonnes of fabrics (300 litres per-kg fabric). The global standard is well below 100 litres per kilogram of fabrics.    “The massive use of groundwater contributes to a major decline in water level (1-2 metres per year),” he told the meet. The impact is already being felt in the capital city, Dhaka, the policy analyst said to ring an alarm bell. Without full coverage of effluent-treatment plants (ETPs) along with strict enforcement of related rules and laws, the water pollution could not be addressed effectively. Furthermore, the PRI executive director observed that in view of the projected expansion of RMG and textile sector by 2030 the problem without cent-percent ETP coverage would become more extensive. At present, according to Dr Mansur, the ETP coverage is about 30 per cent. He also described in details the initiatives taken so far to address the problem, including Bangladesh Bank governor’s commitment for setting up the US$ 500 million Export Development Fund-II for textile factories, to help them adopt eco-friendly technologies and practices. To check improper use of the fund, former Finance Minister M. Syeduzzaman urged the authorities concerned to be more careful so that the deserving industries only could utilise the fund. He also stressed the need for making the country’s textile industry more environment- friendly by reducing the levels of pollution. Most of the speakers at the seminar demanded implementation of earlier recommendations and called for forming a taskforce within the Ministry of Environment and Forests to discuss the issues, taking into account all recommendations. The environment minister, however, pointed out that a lot of policies had been formulated since the Independence, but to little or no effect because of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy, he said, gobbled up almost two-thirds of the budget. Mr Anwar Hossain also identified corruption as one of the major problems holding back the advancement the country could have attained. “It bleeds the economy, eats up most of our achievements. If there were no corruption, there would be at least 3-4 per cent more income,” he told his audience in the brainstorming session. The minister, also chairman of his faction of the JP, expressed his grave concern over the present political situation, too, as it appeared as a roadblock to economic activity, normal course of life and business.  “You cannot do business; there is no gas, no electricity. The water supplied by government cannot be drunk,” he said about the cascading impacts of the political impasse.  “The situation is created by politicians. We, every one, are trying to eliminate one by another,” the minister of the Awami League-led coalition government said on a note of frustration. BGMEA president Atiqul Alam said positive changes had already gained the momentum and Bangladesh’s RMG sector was in its quest for an environmentally sustainable industry. To keep this momentum up, he urged brands and buyers to play a vital role by encouraging eco-friendly suppliers providing premium prices. Held at the PRI conference room, the seminar was also addressed, among others, by Bangladesh Bank Economic Adviser Md. Akhteruzzaman, Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) CEO Ferdaus Ara Begum, Programme Manager, Bangladesh Water PaCT, Mrinal Sircar, Brand Representative, C&A, Kazy Mohammad Iqbal Hossain and Ifty Islam, managing partner, AT Capital. The seminar also called for urgently undertaking a campaign against misuse of harmful chemicals, creating database of importers and distributors of hazardous chemicals and incentives for adopting low-cost cleaner production practices.

The Rana Plaza building collapse has been a “game changer” for Bangladesh, the Danish minister for trade and development cooperation says.Morgen Jensen extolled the progress made by the Bangladesh garment sector after the worst-ever building collapse.”Nowhere in the world have we seen multi-stakeholder collaboration on a scale like this in order to improve standards in a national industry,” Jensen said on Thursday speaking at a high-level conference on RMG sector.”The success of this multi-stakeholder approach is a really valuable lesson that has been learnt,” he said.The Danish government organised the meet on ‘RMG Industry and Beyond: Framing the Future’ to mark two years of Bangladesh’s worst-ever building collapse at Savar.Bangladesh’s Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed and Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali also spoke at the conference which was organised to share the lessons learnt after the building collapse and future cooperation.The Danish government also launched its next five year’s strategic plan in Bangladesh at the conference.The Rana Plaza tragedy, in which more than 1,100 people died, drew global attention to Bangladesh’s factory safety standards and workers’ rights concerns.The US cancelled Bangladesh GSP privilege that some of its products enjoyed, though the garments never enjoyed the US GSP.The European Union also rolled out “sustainable compact” package for improving factory safety standards and ensuring workers’ rights.Foreign Minister Ali blasted global buyers in his speech and said that countries like Bangladesh faced a situation in which “buyers take it all”. “Ensuring decent work worldwide is about shared responsibility for shared prosperity. It is about equity and fairness,” Ali said.The Danish minister, however, said Bangladesh had achieved a lot after the Rana Plaza, but challenges remained.”For example,” he said, “the need for a proper enforcement of the new labour act, the need to remove barriers to freedom of association and collective bargaining and the need to continue to invest in infrastructure to ensure safe working conditions is felt.”He said Denmark as many other countries have taken initiatives and made funding available for the effort.He said the Danish government had entered into a “unique” partnership agreement with the Danish textile industry.The focus of the agreement is to ensure a better and more sustainable production in Bangladesh, he said.”I expect tangible results from this partnership, in particular when it comes to social dialogue in the workplace.”During the conference, Denmark also launched a new initiative to work with Bangladesh in the areas of occupational health and safety.The visiting minister, however, said for the last two years all focus had been on the clothing industry for “good reasons”, but “we should not forget the other industries that are also contributing to Bangladesh’s economy”.He particularly mentioned leather and shipbuilding industries.He said this conference would “inspire” other industries in Bangladesh and its stakeholders to look at how they can take advantage of the lessons learned from the clothing sector.He, however, stressed on long-term political stability for investments and development while meeting journalists after the conference.Denmark is one of Bangladesh’s leading development partners that currently works in areas like water, sanitation, agriculture, human rights, and development sectors.Morgen Jensen later met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

A two-day international cotton summit began in Dhaka  Friday with a call to remove all barriers relating to cotton trade and establish good networking in cotton value chain. Textiles and Jute Minister Mohammad Emaze Uddin Pramanik formally inaugurated the summit styled “Global Cotton Summit Bangladesh 2015” at a city hotel pledging all financial supports to develop the country’s textile and clothing industry. Bangladesh is one of the leading countries in textile world and more than 80 percent of its export earnings come from this sector. “But unfortunately we have to import more than 90 of cotton to meet the local as well as export demands,” said the minister hopping that the summit will open up a new opportunity in fulfilling the gap. Since Bangladesh is not a cotton growing country, it has to import huge quality of cotton especially from India, central Asia, USA, Brazil, Australia and Africa. “But the outsourcing is not always smooth and very often makes big impact due to fluctuation of cotton prices in international market,” said Tapan Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) while addressing the inaugural session. The degree of fluctuation is sometimes so acute that both buyers and sellers often face great difficulties in fulfilling and complying contractual obligations. “Moreover, at times cotton exporting countries put export barriers and therefore the import contracts remain unperformed,” said Chowdhury urging the participants to address all these relevant issues. The organisers said the cotton suppliers and buyers had been engaged in disputes because of problems related to weight, quality and LC opening. Such disputes led to the souring of relations between the parties. Chowdhury hoped that the summit will narrow the communication gap between international cotton sellers and Bangladeshi buyers and help reduce the risk on cotton trade as the buyers and sellers will have the opportunity to hold dialogues among them. The apex body of the country’s textile mills, BTMA and Bangladesh Cotton Association (BCA) jointly organised the two-day summit at Radisson hotel. More than 250 delegates from Bangladesh, India, Poland, US, Russia, Pakistan, China, UK, Turkey, Egypt, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and France attended the summit. Thirteen sessions on different issues will be held on the sidelines of the summit which is being participated by experts, traders, textile entrepreneurs, manufacturers, business leaders and economists. The inaugural session was addressed among others by FBCCI (Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry) president Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed and BCA president Muhammad Ayub. BTMA former president Jahangir Alamin and Cotton Incorporated Senior Vice President Mark Messura presented two keynote papers on “Bangladesh Spinning Industry in Next Decade” and  “Global Cotton Outlook, Growths and Economics” respectively. In his welcome address BCA president Ayub said that export from the country’s RMG sector placed the country in a respectable position, adding that the country now imports as much as 5.5 million bales of cotton a year to meet the demand as against 3 million bales 10 years ago. Dwelling on the country’s glorious past of Moslin clothes, FBCCI president Kazi Akram said despite lot of problems, the country’s clothing industry is growing fast.  “Sometimes China dumps cotton, waits for price increase.”  “But braving all these barriers, we are moving forward. Once there is political stability, we will move fast. We want to materialize our dream, want to surpass China,” said the FBCCI president. BTMA ex-president Jahangir Alamin in his paper described how the country’s textile industry came to its present position and became the main strength of the export-oriented garment sector as they play an important role as a backward linkage industry for exports. He pointed out about the sector’s requirement and preparations to achieve an export target of US$ 50 billion by the year 2021. At present, the sector accounted for US$ 24 billion out of the country’s total export of US$ 30.17 billion.

Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) and Bangladesh Cotton Association (BCA) will organise “Global Cotton Summit -Bangladesh 2015”. The global event will take place on 20-21 March at Hotel Radisson Blu Water Garden in the city. Minister for Textiles and Jute Emaz Uddin Pramanik will inaugurate the two-day summit. “The cotton summit will be helpful for the sector to build strong business relations with global business partners”, BTMA president Tapan Chowdhury said at a press conference on cotton summit at association office in the city Wednesday. He said the primary textile sector has been playing a vital role in the local readymade garment (RMG) sector. He said there are 407 spinning mills across the country where 5.5 million bails of cotton is consumed annually. Mr Chowdhury said now Bangladesh is the second largest cotton consumer and last year there was 65 per cent growth of cotton consumption. He said the local entrepreneurs could fulfil the total demand of spin but the industry owners cannot use their hundred per cent production capacity due to shortage of gas and electricity. He said: “We have a mission to hit the $50 billion mark in clothing exports by the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence in 2021”. He said to fulfill the $50 billion export target the sector needs to increase local yearn and fabric production. “In recent times, we have been struggling with the present political turmoil as we could not run our business smoothly”, president of BCA Muhammad Ayub said. He said this is the first time the Global Cotton Summit is being held in Bangladesh where the members of BTMA and BCA including Global cotton shippers, traders and merchants will take part. He said the delegation of the Indian Cotton Association Ltd, African Cotton Association, Karachi Cotton Association, Association Française Cotonnière (AFCOT) and other leading global organisations will also participate at the summit. He said 500 delegates from home and abroad including India, Poland, USA, Russia, Pakistan, China, UK, Missouri, Swaziland, Singapore, Hong Kong and France are expected to attend the summit