e_Paper 24-04-2017
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14<br />
MONDAY, APRIL <strong>24</strong>, <strong>2017</strong><br />
DT<br />
Opinion<br />
The<br />
revolutionary<br />
industry<br />
The Rana Plaza collapse was a<br />
big blow to our economy, but we<br />
managed to learn a lot from it<br />
• Mamun Rashid<br />
I<br />
was nearly forced into the<br />
BGMEA advisory board by my<br />
friend Atiqul Islam, former<br />
BGMEA president, to help<br />
him come out of the mess that was<br />
the Rana Plaza collapse and other<br />
relevant incidents.<br />
It was a very challenging<br />
time -- morale was down, many<br />
small factories were taken out of<br />
the global supply chain, orders<br />
were cancelled, rights groups<br />
were becoming vocal against the<br />
Bangladesh apparel sector and so<br />
was the international civil society,<br />
academia, and development<br />
partners.<br />
Anything the BGMEA<br />
leadership thought of doing<br />
was twisted against them, be it<br />
individually or collectively.<br />
Every little concession or<br />
waiver from the government was<br />
being challenged by the media and<br />
part of the local civil society. There<br />
were surprises everywhere.<br />
A headless chicken<br />
Our BGMEA friends didn’t know<br />
what to do. The government and<br />
senior political leadership were<br />
out to salvage our apparel sector<br />
in any way possible -- perhaps the<br />
silver lining in this sordid affair.<br />
Our PMO, finance ministry,<br />
labour ministry, and the<br />
foreign ministry showed an<br />
unprecedented combined effort in<br />
tackling the situation.<br />
The buyers, upon pressure<br />
from international civil society,<br />
somehow echoed voice of a<br />
portion of our civil society; and<br />
the government decided to form<br />
Accord and Alliance to streamline<br />
their efforts in ensuring worker<br />
safety in our RMG sector.<br />
While the ILO put in an<br />
integrated effort along with the<br />
government.<br />
The sad part was that certain<br />
elements within the BGMEA<br />
leadership were still feeling rather<br />
restrictive, and even aggressive to<br />
some extent.<br />
They were averse to any<br />
criticism or media reports, even if<br />
it was genuinely constructive. We<br />
had long sessions with them and<br />
Atiqul Islam.<br />
We forced them to bite a few<br />
bullets -- build bridges with media<br />
community, the civil society, the<br />
international media, and business<br />
school professors, and, more<br />
importantly, hold regular dialogue<br />
with workers and their leaders.<br />
Most of us realised<br />
that our workers<br />
were the true<br />
partners in progress<br />
-- and we genuinely<br />
need to take care of<br />
our true partners<br />
Damage control<br />
That was the time we recruited<br />
a few serving journalists to join<br />
the BGMEA, strengthened their<br />
research wing, got in touch with<br />
leading academia at Harvard<br />
Business School and Stern School<br />
of Business, changed the BGMEA<br />
directory to “apparel story” to<br />
accommodate more opinions from<br />
the factory floors and other stakeholders.<br />
In the same way, BATEXPO<br />
became the “Bangladesh Apparel<br />
Summit.”<br />
With extensive help from<br />
ILO, the EU, and other global<br />
stake-holders, we were able to<br />
put up Centre of Excellence for<br />
Bangladesh Apparel Industry.<br />
The market could see a lot of<br />
synergy taking place between<br />
broader stake-holders.<br />
It wasn’t all about scrubbing<br />
The cornerstone of our country<br />
off the bad image and reputation<br />
that our RMG industry had donned<br />
after Rana Plaza; we also worked<br />
very closely with National Board of<br />
Revenue and Bangladesh Bank to<br />
reevaluate the apparel industry’s<br />
tariff structure, especially to save<br />
the small ones from the brink of<br />
collapse, increase the size of the<br />
export development fund (EDF),<br />
and increase the entity/single<br />
party limit under EDF.<br />
We initiated dialogue with the<br />
Japanese embassy and JICA to<br />
explore the possibilities of putting<br />
up a financing package in order<br />
to retrofit and relocate the small<br />
factories.<br />
We held several discussions<br />
with regard to putting up an<br />
integrated financing package for<br />
establishing the “garments polli”<br />
at Bausia, Munshiganj.<br />
The true partners<br />
We weren’t quite as successful<br />
as we’d hoped we’d be, since a<br />
befittingly large financing package<br />
at an affordable rate could not be<br />
arranged commercially.<br />
A few Chinese companies did<br />
show interest, one even signed an<br />
MoU. I am not aware of the latest<br />
development.<br />
One thing we understood<br />
was that the Bangladesh apparel<br />
industry has reached the “too big<br />
to fail” stage, due to its size and<br />
product diversity.<br />
Most of us realised that our<br />
workers were the true partners in<br />
progress -- and we genuinely need<br />
to take care of our true partners.<br />
We kept on talking about<br />
“productivity improvement,”<br />
but not much could be done<br />
as it required heavy financial<br />
commitment.<br />
While few of our apparel<br />
producers reached an enviable<br />
stage -- be it green factory<br />
environment, workers health<br />
and safety, building technology<br />
solutions, or the business reengineering<br />
process -- many<br />
others lagged behind.<br />
It’s important to note how most<br />
of our producers realised that the<br />
RAJIB DHAR<br />
government can’t do much apart<br />
from using police force to pacify<br />
mobs or workers.<br />
We need to solve our own<br />
problems in managing workers,<br />
through the adoption of better<br />
technology to increase production,<br />
avoiding any surprises by<br />
putting up improved fire-safety<br />
equipment, and ensuring worker<br />
training and efficient financing<br />
package.<br />
We are now talking to the<br />
media, the US state department,<br />
the EU, and other development<br />
partners much more openly than<br />
in the past.<br />
We are ready to take criticism<br />
into account, go the extra mile to<br />
build friendships, and constantly<br />
research new avenues for growth.<br />
Thanks to Atiq and his BGMEA<br />
team for rising to the occasion and<br />
making a commitment to learning<br />
from mistakes. •<br />
Mamun Rashid is a leading economic<br />
analyst and former advisory board<br />
member, BGMEA.