Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged international clothing brands to help factory owners overhaul their facilities.
She made the call at a clothing summit in the capital Dhaka aimed at improving the apparel supply chain in what is a vital sector for the local economy.
“Various brands and buyers can come forward to assist Bangladeshi factory owners as a huge fund is required for the factories to be overhauled,” she said at the meeting organised by the garment factory owners.
Referring to the measures put in place after the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in 2013, which killed over 1,100 people, Hasina said steps have been taken to make the garment sector safer.
Thirty-nine out of a total of 3,869 factories inspected since 2013 were found to be unsafe and were closed, she said, and the remaining factories are being renovated.
Hasina also addressed a need to improve employer-worker relations, amid a dispute over the arrest of 34 union leaders last year and harsh working conditions, which led to several major brands withdrawing from the conference.
The decision by H&M, Inditex (Zara), C&A, Next and Tchibo came after the Bangladeshi government and factory owners imposed restrictions over the last two months on the labour movement, according to the Netherlands-based Clean Clothes Campaign.
The government relented and released the last of 34 union leaders on bail shortly before the summit, but the five brands still did not attend yesterday.
The Clean Clothes Campaign pointed out that most of the detainees “continue to face criminal charges that carry the potential of long jail sentences.”
More than 1,600 garment workers were sacked in Bangladesh after labour unrest at the end of December forced many factories to suspend production for more than a week in an industrial district near the capital Dhaka.
Nearly 4,000 clothing factories are in operation in Bangladesh, the second largest exporter of clothing after China.
Annual trade is worth $30bn. Bangladesh is aiming to achieve $50bn in clothing exports
by 2021.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visiting a stall at the Dhaka Apparel Summit in Dhaka yesterday.
