Minister asks RMG owners to cut reliance on foreign consultants
Textiles and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui yesterday asked textile and garment entrepreneurs to cut dependency on foreign consultants and produce skilled manpower at home to run technical and business activities.
The industrial sector might have the pro-blems of gas and power, but the country's workers are making the finest clothes for the customers around the world, he said.
“Still, we need to produce skilled manpower for the sector through establishing educational institutes. Our workers are highly skilled, as they are producing the finest clothes for the upscale market in the world," Siddiqui said.
The minister suggested the garment factory owners should not compete against each other in the local market, but to compete in the international market with other competitors.
He asked the factory owners to increase the facilities provided to the workers to help them maintain a decent life.
"Some NGOs are involved in the ready-made garment sector and sometimes they create troubles in the sector," he said.
His comments came at the launching ceremony of the “Better Work in Textiles and Garments (BWTG),” a project for improving the effectiveness of the textiles and garment sectors in Bangladesh, at Hotel Sonargaon in the city.
This is a joint project of the textiles and jute ministry and the commerce ministry and funded by the EU along with Norwegian Aid agency NORAD and implemented by UNIDO.
AH Aslam Sunny, vice-president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said different associations in the sector are currently running some programmes such as enhancing productivity and social compliances to meet the demand of the buyers.
"We also need to improve the efficiency of mid-level management," he said, adding that the country's experience about trade unions is not that good.
MA Zaher, vice-president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, said textiles and RMG sectors are facing dearth of skilled human resources. "We need to set up new educational institutes to produce more skilled human resources for the sector.”
David Yuen-Hoi Lee, project manager of BWTG-BEST, UNIDO, Vienna, said the garment sector is a success story of Bangladesh. "But you also have to think about the future safety. Bangladesh is now competing with Cambodia and Vietnam, who are working very hard to remain competitive worldwide.”
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