The recent United Nations (UN)-World Trade Organisation (WTO) joint report has underrated the progress of Bangladesh’s readymade garments (RMG) sector in some cases, according to the country’s apparel manufacturers, who recently disagreed with a few indicators that show Bangladesh behind Vietnam and said the report underrated the progress made by the domestic industry.

The competitiveness report, titled ‘The Textile and Clothing Sector in Asian Graduating Least Developed Countries: Challenges and Ways Forward’, scores Bangladesh lower than Vietnam on 10 indices out of 12.

In product quality, lead time and sustainability, Bangladesh's RMG sector is not as good as that of Vietnam, it says. Bangladesh scored 3.5 and Vietnam scored 4.5 in both the product quality and lead time indices. In sustainability, Bangladesh scored 2, while Vietnam scored 3.5.

Bangladesh is ahead of Vietnam and China only on two indicators—price and tariff advantage.

According to the report, Bangladesh is little ahead in most of the indicators than three other least developed countries (LDCs) of Asia—Cambodia, Laos and Nepal.

Faruque Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said the report specifically mentioned environmental compliance-related risks as a downside for sourcing from Bangladesh.

“But the industry has made a huge stride to transform workplace safety, workers’ wellbeing, and environmental sustainability; the rating seems to be inappropriate,” he said.

Through the joint initiatives of the government, entrepreneurs, buyers and ILO, a paradigm shift has happened in the area of structural, fire and electrical safety, he was quoted as saying by Bangla media outlets.

“We took a zero tolerance policy in ensuring compliance across the sector,” he said.

With 155 LEED certified green factories, Bangladesh has the highest number of green garment factories in the world, he said.

“While assessing the competitiveness, the report stresses the need for vertical integration, raw material sourcing, innovation, flexibility, agility and speed to market. We have also prioritized all these points,” he said.

The sector has also identified diversification, value addition, innovation, technological upgrades, and re-skilling and upskilling as our core priority areas, added the BGMEA president.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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