Long-term sustainability, strengthened participation in global value chain and enhanced competitiveness of Bangladesh’s export-oriented RMG sector must be ensured. These were some of the findings presented at a day-long conference on “Transformation in the RMG Sector in Post-Rana Plaza Period: Findings from CPD Survey”. Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised this conference to validate the findings and recommendations of its CPD-RMG Study titled, New Dynamics in Bangladesh’s Apparels Enterprises: Perspectives on Restructuring, Upgradation and Compliance Assurance.
About the CPD-RMG Study | Programme | Press Clips
Videos: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Presentations:
- Opening Session
- Panel Discussion One: Enterprise-level Upgrading in Post-Rana Plaza Period: Changes in Technologies and Management
- Panel Discussion Two: Changes in Decent Work and Gender-related Issues in RMG Enterprises: Findings from the Survey
- Closing Session: Bangladesh’s RMG Sector after Double Graduation: Exploring Policy, Operation and Research related Issues
The conference included four sessions where the relevant findings on various aspects of the study were shared with the participants. Mr Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, Honorary President, Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Textiles and Jute, attended the opening session as the Chief Guest. Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, CPD, chaired the session. The event took place on 30 August 2018 at Khazana Gardenia Grand Hall.
In the opening session, Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Research Director, CPD, and Team Leader of the CPD-RMG Study, made a presentation on the summary of all the reports presented under the study. The presentation emphasised on the upgradation of the RMG sector in economic, social, gender and decent work related issues. Dr Moazzem stated that, small and medium enterprises are lagging behind more in economic upgradation compared to large enterprises. The gender embedded social upgradation are also still below par in all the sampled enterprises. There is also regional variation with regards to upgradation, Narayangonj and Chattogram are lagging behind as compared to Dhaka and Gazipur. Professor Sobhan in his speech, spoke about the distributive justice for the RMG workers in the global value chain.
Other issues discussed in various sessions are technological and management and decent work and gender-related aspects concerning enterprise-level upgradation. Further opportunities in the RMG sector and future scope for research in the sector were discussed in the conference.
The conference was attended by RMG factory owners, labour leaders, buyers, academics and researchers, and representatives from NGOs and development partners.