Staff Reporter :
Canadian High Commissioner in Dhaka Benoit Pierre Laramee on Monday said that Bangladesh should focus on improving working conditions and workers’ safety in the ready-made garment (RMG) sector for achieving its future vision.
“Bangladesh has the potential to be a model for the garments industry in the region and globally. Improving working conditions, building safety and protections of the workers’ rights can help the sector to achieve the future vision of tuning the industry into $50 billion one by 2021,” he said.
The Canadian envoy came up with the suggestion while speaking at a press briefing held at the BGMEA
conference room in the city.
“The RMG sector has set a target to export $50 billion in garments by 2021. This objective will contribute towards the boarder vision of Bangladesh reaching middle income status. However, the time now is ripe for Bangladesh to strategize and plan on how it will manage the sector during the transition from a low to middle income country. This will be important as Bangladesh will not get duty free access once it reaches middle income country status,” he said.
He also said that RMG sector is an important part of the trade relationship between Canada and Bangladesh. This large and growing sector is critical to Bangladesh’s economy and responsible for a significant increase in women’s employment and economic empowerment in the country, as well as foreign currencies earnings.
Laramee mentioned that Bangladesh has shown excellent competencies in apparel making. In cost and efficiency, Bangladesh is one of the most competitive countries in the world for most of the apparel items and its needs to maintain the quality and efficiency to sustain its comparative advantage.
Regarding the compliance issue, he said, a three-and-a-half year initiative focuses on improving RMG factory building safety, workers’ rights and overall working conditions in Bangladesh is going on. The Government of Bangladesh and International Labour Organization is implementing the project funded by Canada, the Netherlands and the UK.
Canada’s main merchandise imports from Bangladesh include knit apparel, woven apparel and miscellaneous textile articles. Canada is bright spot for Bangladesh apparels. Bangladesh apparel export to Canada reached $1.0 billion in the fiscal year 2013-14 from $595.55 million in fiscal year 2009-10. Canada has provided duty-free access to Bangladesh, which immensely benefits the garments sector.
