He told daily sun that the country’s total export would exceed $ 20 billion this fiscal against the target of $ 18 billion and the garment sector alone would contribute $ 17 billion. “The garment sector’s export will reach $17 billion in the current financial year and the total export volume will exceed $20 billion, surpassing the target of $18 billion,” BGMEA president said.
Murshedy, however, urged the government to ensure development of infrastructure, adequate energy supply to the industries and funding to the workers’ training centres to increase the number of skilled labour force.
The Dhaka-Chittagong highway is very crucial for the country’s external trade as this is the only route to take the products to the Chittagong port for export and this route must be developed to a six-lane highway as soon as possible, he said. He said: “We need a route that can facilitate transportation of products to the Chittagong port six hours from Dhaka.”
BGMEA president also stressed on sufficient gas supply and said many industries were yet to go into production due to lack of gas connection.
He said lack of skilled labour force is another problem in the garment sector.
“Thirty percent of total capacity of the factories still remains unutilised only due to lack of adequate number of skilled labour force,” he said.
He said the training centres can train only 20,000 to 25000 workers every year, which is much less than the requirement. If the government provides the training centres with financial supports, over 200,000 skilled workers will be generated every year, he said.
“If government provides finances, the training centres will be able to develop sufficient number of skilled labours and this will ensure employment to a large number of people of the country,” he said. BGMEA president said raising electricity price will further increase the production cost of readymade garments, which has already been affected by higher cotton price in the international market. “The government should rather ensure uninterrupted power supply to the factories,” he said. Murshedy said the government can increase the electricity price, but the uninterrupted power supply to the factories must be ensured first.
In replying to a question, BGMEA president said a recent study showed that 90 percent of the factories are complying with the new wage structure for the workers.
But, we cannot say that the rest of the factories are non-compliant, as they do not understand the provisions of the minimum wage structure properly.
“We are continuing our efforts to make them aware and help them comply with the new wage rules,” he added.
Murshedy said hospitals will be constructed and rationing system will be introduced for the garments workers to help them meet the increasing living cost. The figures released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) recently showed that in July-January period of the current fiscal year, the export marked 39.85 percent growth compared to the corresponding period of last year. The total export volume reached US$ 12.184 billion during the first seven months of the fiscal.
The Daily Sun, Sun, 13/02/2011
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