Say experts
The announcement of the US company Walt Disney to stop producing its branded merchandise in Bangladesh would further tarnish the image of the country’s apparel sector already dogged by recent incidents like building collapse and fire, said experts on Saturday.
Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman said that Disney had decided to pull out from Bangladesh last year and made the official announcement few days back as they considered the garment industry of Bangladesh noncompliant.
‘Obviously it is a warning for Bangladesh apparel sector. I do not think that the other buyers will pull out from Bangladesh immediately as they will monitor what the country’s apparel sector is doing to improve workplace condition,’ he said.
According to media reports published on Friday Disney had pulled out from Bangladesh in the wake of a series of factory disasters that reflected poorly on workplace safety.
New York-based CNNMoney in a report on Thursday said that the company sent a letter in March to vendors and licensees to take away production from ‘highest-risk countries,’ like Bangladesh, in order to improve safety standards in its supply chain.
The report said that Disney would also halt production in four other countries: Ecuador, Venezuela, Belarus and Pakistan by April 2014.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies senior research fellow Nazneen Ahmed told New Age on Saturday that Disney’s withdrawal would be a black spot for the country because of its brand value. ‘I will not be surprised if some other high-end buyers walk on the same way,’ she said.
The decision of Disney might not decrease the export volume as less than one per cent of Disney’s products are sourced from Bangladesh but it would tarnish the goodwill of the country, Nazneen said.
She urged the entrepreneurs to realise that a number of competitors were active in the world to compete Bangladesh.
Nazneen also said if the entrepreneurs did not change their stance over the compliance issues a good number of buyers might shift their business from Bangladesh.
Disney’s decision was made before the recent devastating collapse of Rana Plaza at Savar that left more than 550 people, mostly garment workers, killed.
It was apparently prompted by the November fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory in Dhaka that killed 112 people, and another fire in Pakistan that killed 262 garment workers September 2012, said the CNN report.
Disney is the first celebrated brand to completely stop production in Bangladesh and that will doubtlessly reflect poorly on the country’s image as a manufacturing centre, it said.
Former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said the Bangladesh apparel industry had very little business with Disney.
‘Disney is pulling out of those countries which do not follow Better Work programme run by the International Labour Organisation and the International Finance Corporation. We will work with the programme and hope that Disney will come back to Bangladesh,’ he said.
-With New Age input
