Shah Alam Nur :
The visiting members of the European Parliament have expressed their satisfaction over the safety measures taken in the country’s garments factories.
They came up with the satisfaction at a meeting with the leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) held at the BGMEA Headquarters in the capital on Friday.
“The members of the European Parliament expressed satisfaction over the changes in mindset of the factory owners on safety and workers’ rights issues,” Siddiqur Rahman, President of BGMEA said.
“We urged the team to ensure ethical buying from the EU buyers as the production cost scaled up sharply,” he said.
The BGMEA president said the factory owners have been taking a number of initiatives for ensuring compliance factory.
At the meeting, the delegation members wanted to know about the progress of factory inspection and labour rights status in the country’s apparel industries, he said. He said they also wanted to know whether the amended labour law is being implemented effectively or not.
“We told them that the country’s RMG sector witnessed many changes after the safety inspection,” Rahman said.
He said there is no objection from the European people about current environment of the country’s RMG sector.
Bangladesh’s earnings from the readymade garment exports to 11 European Union countries declined in the first half of the current financial year (2015-16) compared with that in the same period of last fiscal due to a devaluation of the euro against the US dollar.
According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, the earnings from 27-country EU block in the July-December period of the FY16 grew by 7.34 per cent to $7.83 billion from $7.30 billion in the same period of FY15.
Exporters said that the export earnings from the EU in the first half of the current financial year were below expectation as the earnings fell in 11 countries in the zone. Besides the negative growth in 11 destinations, earnings from two other major EU countries Germany and France achieved minimal growth. Robust earnings from the UK and Spain, two other major markets for Bangladesh garment products, helped the country’s export earnings in the EU block to post 7.34 per cent growth in the period.
The EPB data showed that the earnings from Germany grew by 1.18 per cent to $2.16 billion in the July-December period of FY16 from $2.13 billion in the same period of FY15. Bangladesh fetched $786.70 million in export earnings from France in the first half of FY16 with a 2.31-per cent growth.
Earnings from the United Kingdom grew by 25.70 per cent to $1.61 billion in the July-December period of FY16 from $1.28 billion in the same period of FY15, according to the EPB data. The data showed that the earnings from Spain were $850.96 million with a 13.53-per cent growth in the period. Despite healthy earnings growth in most of the non-traditional markets, the earnings witnessed negative growth in Turkey and Brazil in the first half of FY16, according to the EPB data.
‘The exports to EU increased in volume but earnings remained below expectation due to a depreciation of the euro against the dollar,’ Faruque Hassan, Vice President of BGMEA told The New Nation on Friday.
