WRAP’s Director will be the Keynote Speaker at BATEXPO 2011

WRAP’s Director of Compliance Administration Avedis Seferian will be the keynote speaker at the Bangladesh Apparel and Textile Exposition (BATEXPO) of 2011, held annually by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

Seferian will speak on Sunday (second day) of the three-day conference. His speech, titled “Challenges of Compliance while Exporting Ready-Made Garments (RMG)” will occur on December 11, 2011, from 3 pm to 5:30 p.m., at the Media Bazaar, Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC), in Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s new commerce minister, G M Quader, is the chief guest at BATEXPO this year.

Excited to participate in the conference, Seferian said, “Bangladesh’s RMG export sector continues on its unprecedented boom, which has propelled Bangladesh into the position of number two apparel producing nation on the planet. It is therefore especially imperative for the manufacturers in this sector to recognize the compliance challenges that come with this sort of unprecedented growth.”

Seferian’s speech will focus on how Bangladeshi factories can tackle compliance challenges, and the types of resources and assistance WRAP can provide. WRAP has a strong commitment to Bangladesh and its RMG sector, having opened a liaison office in Dhaka earlier this year.

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WRAP Office opened in Dhaka

Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP), a factory auditing and certification group, has opened its office in Dhaka to help local manufacturers improve working condition in their factories.

The liaison office was opened in Dhaka Tuesday with Saifullah Khawaja as its country manager.

"We're very excited for opening an office in Dhaka. Bangladesh continues to increase its importance as a sourcing destination and we're committed to helping the manufacturing sector improve its social compliance practices," said Steve Jesseph, President and CEO of WRAP, according to the WRAP website.

BGMEA president Salam Murshedy welcomed the opening of WRAP office in the country and said foreign buyers feel comfortable with the factories which have WRAP certificates.

There are about 200 factories which have WRAP certificates.

"It conducts rigorous compliance inspection and if a factory has the certificate, most of the buyers do not go through their own compliance inspection," he said.

BGMEA first vice president Nasir Uddin Chowdhury said the WRAP certification becomes more popular nowadays.

"The main benefit is the comfort of the buyers who work with WRAP compliance factories," he said.

WRAP usually takes six months to complete its inspection and every one or two years it reintegrates the factories, he added.

Bangladesh earned about $8 billion by exporting apparel products out of the total exports of over $10.2 billion.

bdnews24, Wed, 02/02/2011

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