The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Thursday urged the garment factory owners and manufacturers to offer the workers a better pay so they could afford two square meals and work hard to increase production. ‘You [garment factory owners] lead a lavish life but what about your workers? You have to look after them [workers]. It makes little difference if you use one or two pieces of suits less than you do, but the workers would do more work for your factory if they can afford two square meals,’ she said.
Addressing the inaugural function of Bangladesh Apparel and Textile Exposition-2013 at Sonargaon hotel, the prime minister alerted the owners and workers to the conspiracies being hatched at home and abroad to destroy the burgeoning sector.
She urged garment factory owners, manufacturers and workers to unite and work together to protect the sector from conspiracies.
‘Clothing factory owners and workers have to maintain good relations and consider the problems of each other. The government’s support will be there to boost the sector,’ she said.
The prime minister assured the apparel factory owners of considering their demands for reducing the freight on board (FoB), bank interest rate and to provide tax benefit for the industries in the new garment village in Munshiganj.
‘Bank interest is really high. Bangladesh Bank is working on how to reduce the bank interest rate. We are ready to provide all required facilities for the entrepreneurs to establish factories in the new garment village,’ she said.
About the wage board for apparel workers, she said the board would soon announce a wage structure to be acceptable to both the factory owners and workers.
She castigated Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia for supporting the ‘tamarind theory’ propagated by Hefajat-e-Islam supremo Maulana Shafi that opposes women taking up jobs, and said every woman had the right to choose their respective livelihood. ‘No theory would work here,’ she said.
Recalling the Rana Plaza tragedy, Hasina said her government had taken many steps, including bringing changes to building code and forming a special committee to find out the faults in construction of factories in a bid to check such tragedies in future.
She said that the government had distributed compensation of Tk 12 crore among the families of the workers killed in the building collapse and Tk 7 crore to the injured workers for treatment apart from taking measures for their rehabilitation.
Minister for textiles and jute Abdul Latif Siddiqui, LGRD and cooperatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam, commerce minister GM Quader, civil aviation and tourism minister Faruk Khan and shipping minister Shajahan Khan addressed the function as special guests.
BGMEA president Atiqul Islam, also chairman of BATEXPO organising committee, presided over the function while BGMEA acting first vice- president Abdul Wahab and second vice-president MA Mannan Kochi delivered welcome speeches.
Atiqul Islam urged the prime minister to fix 0.25 per cent income tax on FoB from 0.80 per cent, introduce an independent exchange rate and to reduce bank interest for the greater interest of the sector.
Later, the prime minister distributed Frontier Award and Young Entrepreneurs Awards among BGMEA members for their successes in different categories, including business promotion, compliance and promotion of women entrepreneurship. She also visited different stalls of the exposition.
She also handed over award to different local and foreign individuals for their contribution to corporate social responsibility and service for development of the garment sector and welfare of the workers.
-With New Age input
