Chttagong Correspondent
Experts on the apparel product quality and industrial productivity here at a seminar yesterday speculated further growth of the country’s readymade garment (RMG) industry when the biggest economies of the world were hard hit by ongoing economic slowdown.
They said that the local apparel exporters would benefit from the consumer’s delight in the upper markets what mostly depends on better quality and affordability of the products.
“As the local RMG exporters have enough room for making products cheaper beside qualitative improvement only by enhancing workers’ productivity reason is hardly there to be cynical of the growth foreseen,” they asserted urging entrepreneurs to concentrate more on productivity.
They suggested broader cooperation between the partners of the RMG sector, financial institutions and the public organs to tap the opportunities coming out of the circumstances.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) under its three-day apparel, fabric and accessories exposition organized the seminar titled “Quality and Productivity Management in perspective to present Global Economic Situation” at the auditorium of Chittagong Club Limited.
Chief Executive officer of an Indian consulting firm Dr. Rajesh Bheda presented the keynote paper while Managing Director of the Sunman Group Lutfe M Ayub moderated the seminar.
Vice-President of Li & Fung (Bangladesh) Limited Lal Udagedara, Country Manager of the Puls Trading Fareast Limited Manish Chawla, Managing Director of the Eastern Bank Limited Ali Raja Iftekhar and head of Standard Chartered bank in Chittagong Mahfuzur Rahman joined the seminar as the resource persons.
Dr. Rajesh pinpointed on three basic issues like low productivity, inconsistent quality of products and the social responsibility of the entrepreneurs that require adequate and immediate attention for letting the RMG industry to remain viable even against the adversities of global meltdown.
Citing an example from his research done on the apparel factories in India Dr. Rajesh said poor quality alone had eaten up over 14 percent of the total sales turn over of the factories covered in the study.
“Adequate training, attention and motivation of the production team can slash the damage up to eight percent that would fat the profit margin by at least 50 percent,” he quoted his research and encouraged local RMG producers to identify the productivity status of their workers before fixing business hunting strategy.
The productivity improvement program (PIT) jointly launched by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) for the member enterprises has been appreciated. It is claimed that the project has already started putting positive impacts on the usual productivity line.
Dr. Rajesh hoped that improvement of the RMG export to US $ 25 billion a year would be possible for the local exporters if the challenges relating to cost cut, qualitative improvement and best production practices are followed.
Country Manager of the Puls Trading Fareast Limited Manish Chawla said that his company had been thinking actively to double the RMG purchase from Bangladeshi suppliers in the coming months. Affordability of the local products had inspired to go for the expansion, he said.
Leading apparel manufacturers, mass media workers and representative of the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) Lutful Kabir among others gave their opinion at the seminar.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
