B'desh govt urged to focus on FDI in non-garment sectors

05 Dec '11

2 min read

The readymade garment (RMG) manufacturers in Bangladesh have urged the Government to focus more on drawing foreign investment in export-oriented sectors other than garment industry.

As stipulated by the Bangladesh Government, presently, all the garment producers outside the Export Processing Zones (EPZs), who desire to ship their products outside the country, should necessarily obtain membership certificates of concerned registered clothing association.

However, stating forth reasons like dearth of skilled manpower and probable discrepancies in wage structure, marketing strategies and other practices followed by the domestic and foreign firms, the domestic clothing associations had discontinued issuing membership certificates to foreign investors outside EPZs.

According to these associations, their decision was aimed at safeguarding the country's small and medium scale garment units, which do not have the potential to compete with the foreign firms.

These associations claim that the local garment firms are already enduring severe shortage of gas and power as well as skilled manpower, and allowing foreign firms would mean local firms would have to share all their resources with the overseas firms.

However, adhering to the Government's plea, the clothing associations have restarted issuing membership certificates to foreign firms, subject to some conditions.

The clothing associations have expressed their willingness to grant certificates to only those foreign investors who want to establish their units in Kishoreganj and Sylhet regions, which have adequate power and gas connections and supply.

The clothing associations assert that liberal issuance of such certificates may lead to unrest amongst workers over issues like disparities in wages and other benefits offered by the domestic and foreign firms to their workers.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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