Mostafiz Uddin

Around the world, the issue of human rights due diligence in global supply chains is rapidly rising up the agenda. But what does this mean and how will it impact garment manufacturers in Bangladesh?

After all the talk of “bouncing back better” in our industry during the past 18-months, we are still failing the people who make our clothes.

In Bangladesh, we are missing a trick by failing to capitalise on a resource which could super-charge our RMG industry into a bold new era. What resource? Female leaders and executives. Look at the world’s most successful economies and you will find that one of the most defining features is the prevalence of females in positions of leadership and management. This rule also applies for the world’s top businesses.

The RMG industry’s challenges are too big to solve at the individual level.

We make clothing in Bangladesh, and we do it exceedingly well. But how good are we at marketing and selling this clothing?

Cotton is the lifeblood of the Bangladesh RMG industry, with our country among the world’s four largest users of this miracle fibre. The other three are China, India and Pakistan, the latter two of which also have large home textile markets.

Inter-national donors have played a key role in the development of the Bangladesh economy in recent years. Many global donors have huge purse strings and are often able to fund projects that otherwise might not get off the ground.

We all knew the global pandemic would change the business world in some way but, until recently, it has been difficult to pinpoint precisely how. For many of us, the past 16 months have been a fight to remain competitive above all else. Indeed, for some, it has been a fight for survival.

What makes a successful year for a business? The traditional way we define business success is through financials. With public companies, each quarter we receive an update, as well as an annual update. This tells us about revenues and profits as well as dividends payable to shareholders.

Bangladesh apparel industry stands at a critical juncture. The industry has achieved significant improvements in safety and is making steady strides in sustainability.

In my last article in The Daily Star, I wrote that Bangladesh needs to urgently act to retain the GSP+ facility post-LDC status.

This February, Bangladesh received the endorsement of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) regarding its final timeline for exiting the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) group. Bangladesh is now scheduled to leave the LDC category in 2026.

We are seeing a growing number of brands, retailers and manufacturers setting climate targets at present. In many cases they are establishing science-based targets aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

For better or worse, Bangladesh as a sourcing hub has become the global bellwether for CSR issues in apparel supply chains.

Must we keep on making the same old mistakes? Last year during the pandemic, I wrote extensively about the issue of purchasing practices and their impact on garment supply chains and their workers.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit virtually all businesses—but some have been hit harder than others. Indeed, some have barely been hit at all and a lucky few have thrived during the pandemic.

The Bangladesh government is set to enforce a week-long hard lockdown across the country, beginning April 14.

Sometimes an industry needs a helping hand. It happened in many countries, at different junctures of history.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) will announce a new president on April 4, as well as a new board of directors. Whoever wins the election and takes over as BGMEA president faces a mountainous challenge.

It’s not all doom and gloom. The past 12 months have seen one bad news after another, and it has often felt like we are taking two steps forwards and three steps back.