Staff Reporter :
Sister concerns of the country’s export-oriented readymade garment (RMG) industry are being neglected as the sector is deprived of all kinds of facilities amid Covid-19 pandemic.
The sector insiders said that the cartons, packaging and labels are key essential goods of the readymade garments and these are imported from Korea one upon a time. The country had to expend crores of money to import the goods.
But these allied goods are now being manufactured in the country and saving huge amount of foreign currency every year. But the industries are not getting facilities like RMG, though these are associated with the RMG, they said.
They further said the sector is not getting loans to import raw materials at discounted interest rate or two percent incentive.
The sectors are also deprived of loans from the Prime Minister’s announced stimulus package of Tk 5000 crore for the RMG sector during the ongoing corona pandemic.
As result, the raw materials of the garment accessories are being imported at the high interest rate loans, they said.
Under this circumstance, most of the factories in these two sectors are closing down due to the lack of special consideration and thousands of workers will be unemployed in coming days, they said.
Around 2,000 factories have been set up in the country to produce these two products and over eight lakh people are involved in the sectors. The industries have now become sufficient to meet country’s demand, although the manufacturing of the key essential goods of RMG was started after 90’s.
But thousands of the workers have become unemployed, as many of the factories are being closed due to the corona pandemic.
Md Abdul Kader Khan, President of the Bangladesh Garments Accessories & Packaging Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BGAPMEA), said that the export of the readymade garments cannot be imagined without cartons, packaging and labels.
“As associate industries, we have to pay salaries for the workers like RMG. Utility bills like electricity, gas are being paid similarly. We have suffered in the same way that the garments sector suffered resulting from the coronavirus,” he said.
“But we are not getting facilities from the stimulus package, although we had appealed for this,” he added.
He also said around 650 factories out of 1700 have been closed and the rest of the factories which are still in operations, are facing manifold problems due to the ongoing pandemic situation.
Recovering from the damage, the government should form a separate package for these sector, he added.
Sister concerns of the country’s export-oriented readymade garment (RMG) industry are being neglected as the sector is deprived of all kinds of facilities amid Covid-19 pandemic.
The sector insiders said that the cartons, packaging and labels are key essential goods of the readymade garments and these are imported from Korea one upon a time. The country had to expend crores of money to import the goods.
But these allied goods are now being manufactured in the country and saving huge amount of foreign currency every year. But the industries are not getting facilities like RMG, though these are associated with the RMG, they said.
They further said the sector is not getting loans to import raw materials at discounted interest rate or two percent incentive.
The sectors are also deprived of loans from the Prime Minister’s announced stimulus package of Tk 5000 crore for the RMG sector during the ongoing corona pandemic.
As result, the raw materials of the garment accessories are being imported at the high interest rate loans, they said.
Under this circumstance, most of the factories in these two sectors are closing down due to the lack of special consideration and thousands of workers will be unemployed in coming days, they said.
Around 2,000 factories have been set up in the country to produce these two products and over eight lakh people are involved in the sectors. The industries have now become sufficient to meet country’s demand, although the manufacturing of the key essential goods of RMG was started after 90’s.
But thousands of the workers have become unemployed, as many of the factories are being closed due to the corona pandemic.
Md Abdul Kader Khan, President of the Bangladesh Garments Accessories & Packaging Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BGAPMEA), said that the export of the readymade garments cannot be imagined without cartons, packaging and labels.
“As associate industries, we have to pay salaries for the workers like RMG. Utility bills like electricity, gas are being paid similarly. We have suffered in the same way that the garments sector suffered resulting from the coronavirus,” he said.
“But we are not getting facilities from the stimulus package, although we had appealed for this,” he added.
He also said around 650 factories out of 1700 have been closed and the rest of the factories which are still in operations, are facing manifold problems due to the ongoing pandemic situation.
Recovering from the damage, the government should form a separate package for these sector, he added.
