Bangladesh: Six garment factories get 'global standard' recognition from Alliance

Dhaka - Six Bangladeshi garment factories have been recognized as being 'of global standard' as the North American buyers’ platform, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, has completed remediation verification visits (RVVs) there and found them compliant. The announcement was made at a press conference on Thursday by visiting executive director of the Alliance, James F Moriarty in Dhaka.

He said out of eight factories given final RVVs, six found to have fully completed the required remediation work set by the platform, which has been working hard to improve the environment at Bangladeshi workplaces since the deadly incident at the Rana Plaza building more than two years ago.

The six garment factories that got an Alliance certificate are: Lenny Apparels, Optimum Fashions Ltd, Uni Vogue Ltd, Laundry Industries, Green Textile Ltd and Kwun Tong Apparels Ltd. Earlier, two more factories received such recognition from the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, a platform of European buyers, which is also inspecting apparel units in Bangladesh.

However, Moriarty, a former US ambassador to Bangladesh, admitted that the RVVs are going a bit more slowly than expected as in last March, the Alliance set a target of completing all remediation and final inspections in its 600 supplier factories by July 2017. The body also announced to complete the final inspections of at least at 10 percent of all factories by July 2015.

“Remediation is moving a little more slowly for various reasons. Bangladesh is not a fire-door producing country which is very important and it needs expertise to install within the set timeframe, which is also not so available,” he told newsmen.

Moriarty said various types of small and major flaws including structural design, electric wiring and fire safety were found when Alliance inspectors made preliminary inspections to the factories. Still, the factories are carrying out the necessary repairs. However, he was hopeful of a completion of RVVs of all of its supplying factories by 2018.

Regarding the slow progress in completion of the necessary factory repairs, Moriarty acknowledged the cost of doing business as a big factor since many factories need to spend quite a huge amount. “By making financing more widely available and affordable and working with factory owners to make the necessary repairs, the Alliance is making factories safer for millions of workers,” he noted.

During the programme, the executive director of the Alliance released the group’s second annual report, which highlighted the progresses made over the last two years, identified challenges and committed continued collaboration with all stakeholders to make reforms sustainable.

Janina Jaruzelski, director of the Bangladesh mission for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said at the programme that they were in discussions with two local banks to provide some 18 million US dollars to small and medium category factories so that those could also carry out the necessary repairs. She said the amount may be ready for subscription by the end of September. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is also giving 50 million US dollars to help the factories carry out the reforms.

The former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Abdus Salam Murshedy, whose Laundry Industries also got recognition, said some 100,000 pieces of readymade garments are being washed each day in his factory. “We had to struggle a lot to achieve the highest quality that the western buyers ask for. These factories have proved that it is not an impossible task,” he said and added, “We don’t want to see a Rana Plaza-like incident again.”

Murshedy thinks that country’s apparel industry will graduate to the next stage once the reform programme is completed. “The export growth will be double digit again then.” Meanwhile, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is also due, made after it forwarded the Action Plan to help improve the working environment in the apparel factories.

Trade officials in Dhaka believe that the US may withdraw the suspension of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) facility soon as the country made remarkable progress in ensuring workplace safety and labour rights.

Written by Syful Islam