RMG buyers skipping Dhaka over law slide

Readymade garment (RMG) buyers, especially from Europe, tend to avoid coming over to Dhaka in the wake of an alarming fall in law and order.

Many buyers chose not to visit Bangladesh this season and asked manufacturers to go all the way to Europe instead for orders, approval and other business follow-up.

"Some of our buyers are very alarmed at the present crime spate in Bangladesh. They are not feeling comfortable anymore to fly in here despite our security assurances," M Rezaul Ahsan, director of a leading sweater industry in Gazipur, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Efforts of the manufacturers to convince buyers saw little success as they could glean information on the unabated killing, abduction and extortion of businesspeople in the past few weeks from their embassies and the internet.

"We were not ready to go to Europe as they usually fly in here and settle matters at our factory. But, since they are reluctant to come to Dhaka this year we will have to travel up there in a week for approval," Rezaul said.

Frequent general strikes add to the misery of garment manufacturers and buyers. The three hartals in the last five days forced the buyers in town back to their hotel rooms and led many others to change their tour itineraries fixed months back.

"We have a prospective buyer who planned to visit our factory in Mirpur today (Monday) before deciding on placing orders with us. She is new to Bangladesh and now all too jittery about business prospects here," said Anowarul Haq, who declined to see the name of his knit factory in print fearing political wrath.

"I hope to take her to the factory tomorrow (Tuesday), if the opposition parties do not call hartal again."

A leading woven garment manufacturer and also a BGMEA (Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association) leader however said his buyers in the US are not that worried over hartal as they were a few years back.

"It is nothing new to them. The only thing they are going to care about is the shipment. Because they can always ask for discounts or even cancel the goods if the shipment deadline is not met," the young entrepreneur said, opting not to be named.

"Hartal and its consequences are absolutely our worry. The irony is that we in no way can afford to upset these politicians by trying to talk some sense into them once we invested crores of taka in these industries. We are held hostage for our investment," he added acidly.

Some buyers have also started inquiring with their liaison offices in Bangladesh if the current agitation has got any real public support.

"Yes, my parent office in Italy is worried about the political development in Bangladesh. I have received a lot of e-mails from our buyers over the weekend in which they asked me to report back if the products of our winter orders are endangered in one way or the other," said Bruno Dumas, an Italian who is the business development consultant in Bangladesh of a renowned Europe-based chain stores.

Orders for this season are unusually high in Bangladesh because of Sars and bird flu outbreaks in China and Vietnam. But this is also the biggest challenge for the struggling sector to deliver the products safely, particularly when the political culture of conflict is getting worse by the day.

"My buyers are of the knowledge that political parties have exempted garment factories from the purview of hartal. So, they are not actually anticipating any delay in shipments," said Sayed Azharul Haque, country manager of a leading Italian company in Bangladesh.

"They are brash business professionals. In case of delay, discount or even cancellation is destined to follow. Why should foreign buyers be sympathetic to Bangladeshi garment products when they can buy them from India, Sri Lanka, China, and elsewhere in Asia without hassles?" he asked.

Most garment factories are indeed operational during hartal hours, but only partially as the related sectors like banking, transportation, ports, accessories factories and others are not exempted from hartals.

"Like all hartal days, the worker turnout at our factory is not satisfactory today (Monday). Also, we could not run the production as the print factory did not make any delivery of cut parts for sewing due to hartal," said Hedayetul Alim, a director of the S-Six Fashions in Narayanganj.

"We also could not send the inspected goods out to Chittagong Port for shipment on Sunday night as hartal was called for today (Monday). The shipment of three orders have been delayed by three days only because of the hartal," he said helplessly.