RMG units without fire safety warned
April 7, 2010
The government yesterday warned garment industry owners of stern actions if their factories lack fire safety compliance. Read more
Foreign apparel makers plan relocation to Bangladesh
April 3, 2010
BATEXPO ends amid warm response from buyers.
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A woman picks clothes on display at the 20th BATEXPO-2009, organised by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in Dhaka. The three-day fair that pulled in warm responses from international buyers ended yesterday.Photo: Anisur Rahman
Top apparel buyers open offices in Dhaka
March 25, 2010
Most global retail brands have opened their offices in Dhaka in recent times for direct sourcing of Bangladesh’s quality clothing items at reasonable prices.
Buyers say the liaison offices here will raise their capacity to follow up on supply chain management for the Bangladesh-made apparels collected at a cost comparatively lower than other countries.
After China, the world’s largest supplier of apparels, Bangladesh emerges as a lucrative place for the renowned retailers like US giant Wal-Mart, JC Penny, Zara, Tesco, IKEA, Marks and Spencer, H and M, Uniqlo and Li & Fung.
These firms have already established their branches in the Bangladesh capital with an aim for business expansion, as they now take much more interest in Bangladesh’s readymade garments than they are keen on such items from China, India and Pakistan..
Previously, major foreign buyers used to source Bangladesh’s RMG either from Delhi or Hong Kong or from Islamabad or through the local buying houses representing them.
According to a major supplier, major brands like Puma, G-Star Raw and Espirit are likely to have their branches in Dhaka soon, although they still source ready-to-wear products from other countries.
An official of the Swedish company IKEA points his finger at Bangladesh’s low-cost but quality apparels, which pushed up buyers’ interests.
Moreover, recently Bangladesh improved a lot in compliance issues and made the garment factories free of child labour, he added.
“Recently many owners have established effluent treatment plants (ETP) in their factories, as it is mandatory for protection of environmental and ecological balance,” the IKEA official also pointed out.
Cheap labour cost is another factor that helped grow buyers’ keenness, said an official at the Dhaka office of another retail brand.
On the objectives of opening its branch office, he said, “Certainly we can now follow-up the supply chain management, compliance issues, product quality and design and efficiency of the suppliers very closely.”
The country is in an advantageous position with cheap and quality apparels because its competitors like China, Pakistan and India are losing out their market share for their higher cost of production, industry insiders say.
Higher cost of production and shifting to high-end products have driven China out of the apparel market, while Pakistan lost its reputation because it has long been a trouble-torn country, apparel makers added.
Meanwhile, Export Promotion Bureau data shows around $3.55 billion knitwear exports in seven months to January of the current fiscal year, a 6.85 percent decline compared to the corresponding period a year earlier. EPB also points out that this figure is also 13.62 percent below the target for this period.
Woven exports also slowed 6.99 percent to $3.15 billion during July-January.
Home textiles and textile fabrics also maintained a negative growth, as their exports totalled $165.65 million and $42.30 million respectively.
When his attention was drawn to such export decline, Anwar-ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez, former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the financial meltdown worldwide has led to this situation, as major export destinations like EU and USA have been badly affected by the recession.
“Apparel exports will rebound soon as there are signs of recession-recovery,” Parvez hoped. However, he insisted on developing Bangladesh’s basic infrastructures to take the growth in apparel exports to an optimum level.
In this context, he suggested the government ensure regular adequate supply of gas and power to RMG units so that manufacturers can maintain in-time production and lead-time.
Source: http://www.thedailystar.net
Walmart CEO for setting up special apparel zone
February 9, 2010
A visiting top executive of Walmart, the world’s largest retail chain, has suggested setting up of a comprehensive industrial zone for the apparel sector in Bangladesh for convenience of buyers and to attract greater foreign investment, reports bdnews24.com.
C. Douglas McMillon, President and CEO of Walmart International, made the suggestion during a meeting with leaders of readymade garment industry at Radisson Hotel in the city Friday morning, BGMEA President Abdus Salam Murshedy told the news agency following the one-hour talks.
“He told us that they consider Bangladesh an important source of apparels. They want to buy more products from here. For that he suggested setting up of a combined industrial zone with adequate gas and power supply for the sec tor,” Murshedy said.
“Such an industrial zone will help raise foreign investment apart from ensuring convenience of the buyers,” he said, quoting the Walmart chief executive as saying.
Walmart buys over a billion dollars worth of readymade garments from Bangladesh annually.
Asked whether they had any discussion on a recent Buyers Forum request to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for raising wages of RMG workers, the BGMEA chief said: “Douglas didn’t raise the issue. But we’ve told him that we’re reviewing the wages that were raised in 2006 and 2009.”
He said McMillon appreciated the move to review wages. Walmart also pledged assistance to BGMEA for offering education to workers’ children, Murshedy said.
The Buyers Forum, a group of 11 leading apparel importers, wrote to the prime minister recently requesting a rise in minimum wages of the RMG workers.
The BGMEA chief said his association also requested the Walmart chief to lead efforts to formulate a unified code of conduct for buyers for the RMG manufacturers, as factories face great troubles to comply with buyer-specific conditions.
McMillon agreed with their view on a unified code.
The industry leaders also requested Walmart chief to consider the issuance of scanning certificates from Bangladesh. He assured the BGMEA leaders of considering the matter.
The BGMEA chief has said 30 per cent of Bangladesh’s garments exports to the US went to Walmart. The US is the single largest importer of Bangladeshi garments.
Famous for its low prices helped by an innovative inventory management system, Walmart says it “serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week” at more than 8,424 retail units under 53 different banners in 15 countries.
With last year’s sales at $401 billion, Walmart employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide, according to the company.
The US-based company operates in Mexico as Walmex, owns the giant Asda in the UK, and runs Seiyu in Japan. In countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Puerto Rico, the company has wholly-owned operations. Walmart has it presence on the sub-continent with a retail chain called Best Price in India
Dhaka looks to WTO meet to win African LDCs’ support
October 13, 2009
Bangladesh is now in talks, both bilateral and multilateral, with the African least developed countries (LDCs) to drum up support from them in winning a zero tariff facility for its major exportable items in the US market.
Officials said it targets the WTO mini-ministerial meeting in Tanzania on October 14-16 to unite all 49 LDCs to mount pressure for such duty-free access.
The Tanzania meet will be, in fact, a groundwork for the Bangladesh team joining there to have positive responses from the Africans to the country in the upcoming WTO Summit. Read more
Export target set at $17.59b this fiscal
September 27, 2009
The government has set export target for the current fiscal at US$17.588 billion, marking a 13 per cent growth over that of the previous fiscal, officials said.
The Ministry of Commerce has convened a meeting today (Thursday) to finalise the export target, proposed by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), for fiscal 2009-10 (FY10).
Leaders of trade bodies, exporters and officials concerned will attend the meeting to be presided over by commerce minister Faruk Khan. Read more
B’desh’s ‘image problem’ a threat to running business in Sweden
September 10, 2009
Bangladeshi businessmen doing business in Sweden said the country’s ‘image problem’ poses a barrier to strengthen the export base in the European country.
“Consumers of this country like Bangladeshi products but they are scared of adulteration or sub-standard as previous track records are not satisfactory as far as Bangladeshi products are concerned,” Mahmud Ali, proprietor of ‘Ababil’, a departmental shop of Stockholm told the FE during a recent visit there.
Read more
BGMEA seeks Wal-Mart help to fight recession
July 7, 2009
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) urged the American retailer Wal-Mart to help the country’s export oriented readymade garments (RMG) sector, which is now passing through a difficult time due to the global financial meltdown.
BGMEA President Abdus Salam Murshedy formally made the call to the Vice-President of Wal-Mart Global Procurement Mark Green in a meeting at the association office in the city Tuesday, according to a press release.
Wal-Mart is the biggest American buyer for Bangladeshi RMG products.
Thanking Wal-Mart for promoting Bangladeshi garments across America through Wal-Mart brand, BGMEA president said the entire industry is under the threat of existence because of drastic price fall and cancellation of work order, he said.
Murshedy also requested Mark to help out in passing the Trade Relief Assistance for Developing Economies (TRADE) Bill, proposed in the 111th US congress on May 21, 2009.
No more privatisation of State owned Enterprises
May 24, 2009
The government will no more privatise state owned enterprises (SoE), as successful bidders have not been using the divested SoEs for purposes they had promised, said Industries Minister Dilip Barua yesterday. Barua also suggested bringing down interest rates to single digits, as according to him, high interest rates are a major obstacle to the country’s industrialisation. He announced that the government has no plan to allow more Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in the near future, rather it is interested in setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Read more
Govt to import essentials to keep market stable during Ramadan
May 6, 2009
The government will import essential items including lentil, onion, sugar, edible oil and chickpeas in bulk quantity to keep the market stable during Ramadan, said a commerce ministry official. “It is a regular phenomenon that prices of essentials soar before Ramadan and continues to rise during the month,” he said. Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will import the items for the government, he added. Read more