Garment factories still rely on foreign experts: CPD survey

Around 13 percent of the country's garment factories have employed foreign experts in the top posts who remit over $5 billion from Bangladesh every year, a new study found.

Among the large factories, the percentage is even bigger -- 47 percent, according to the CPD RMG Study 2016, a two-year-long survey conducted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

Statistics from different sources over the last few years also support the findings of the local think-tank.

In absence of skilled workforce, particularly in merchandising, design and marketing as well as in operation of sophisticated machines, the factory owners have hired experts from China, Taiwan, Japan, India and Pakistan to fill the gap.

The CPD revealed the findings of the survey at a conference titled “Transformation in the RMG sector in post-Rana Plaza period” at the Khazana Gardenia Grand Hall in Dhaka yesterday.

Businessmen, policymakers, union leaders, and researchers and experts from home and abroad attended the event.

The number of foreign technicians did not increase keeping pace with the growth of garment exports from Bangladesh, Faruque Hassan, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said at the discussion.

“If 10 foreign experts can train up 4,900 fashion designers in Bangladesh, then it is ok. We can afford it.”

A decade ago, Bangladesh's garment exports hovered around $12 billion, which rose to more than $30.61 billion last year, he said.

BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology has played a big role in this regard by producing numerous skilled people for the garment sector, Hassan said.

The CPD study covered 226 garment enterprises and interviewed 2,346 garment workers.

The CPD found there are 3,856 active garment factories in Bangladesh where 3.6 million workers are employed.

Of the factories, 48.9 percent are small, 42.5 percent are medium and 7.4 percent are large.

Among the workers, 53 percent are female and 47 percent are male. Some 98 percent factories are located in four districts: Dhaka (38 percent), Gazipur (28.9 percent), Chittagong (16.1 percent) and Narayanganj (14.7 percent).

Only 1.5 percent factories are housed in the export processing zones.

The study found that the productivity of workers has improved and reached to 58.7 percent. The productivity of woven factory workers is 4.3 percentage points higher than their fellow workers in knitwear factories.

In 97.5 percent factories, there is no existence of trade unions and they only have workers' participation committees.

According to the study, the number of female workers in the garment factories is decreasing mainly because of the introduction of modern equipment, which female workers cannot run efficiently.

More than 93 percent workers said sexual harassment did not take place on factory premises, the survey found.

Khondaker Golam Moazzem, project director of the study and research director of the CPD, and Abeer Khandker, a visiting research associate at the CPD, presented the findings.

Moazzem suggested introduction of a 'technology upgrading' fund to help enterprises train their workers to run modern machines.

The study said the corporate management style is yet to be introduced in the family-driven factories. On average, 88 percent companies have three directors from the same family.

The second generation of the owners runs some 65 percent of family-owned factories, the study said.

Interestingly, the study said, 19 percent of the surveyed factories were set up after the Rana Plaza building collapse, indicating that investment took place despite the deadliest industrial disaster, which killed 1,138 people five years ago.

About 5.3 percent of the workers resign every month. Female workers left more than their male counterparts, said the study report.

Rehman Sobhan, chairman of the CPD, called for holding a global consultation to minimise the discrimination in the value chain.

“They [retailers and brands] sell every $5 worth short at $25-$30 in retail establishments in New York, Europe and other various places,” he said as an example of the discrimination.

Zahid Hussain, lead economist of the World Bank's Dhaka office; Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry; Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow of CPD; Saber Hossain Chowdhury, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the textiles and jute ministry, and Shubhashish Bose, commerce secretary, also spoke.