Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed on Saturday said the government will set up an industrial park – BKMEA Palli – for knitwear manufacturers, on 100 acres of land at Shantir Char in Narayanganj. ‘The government will do everything necessary to achieve the export target of $50 billion from the readymade garments sector by the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh,’ he said at a post-Dhaka Apparel Summit press conference at the office of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in the capital.
Tofail said the three-day Dhaka Apparel Summit was a success in terms of achieving its target and the civil society in western countries have learnt that Rana Plaza building collapse is not everything that happens in Bangladesh and that the country has a lot of successes.
He assured BGMEA the government will fulfil all the recommendations that have been put forth in the nine seminars at the summit.
The government is working to establish a Garment Palli at Baushia in Munshiganj for apparel makers, he said.
Tofail said Bangladesh is even ahead of USA in terms of guaranteeing workers’ rights as we have ratified all of the eight core conventions of the International Labour Organisation, while the US has ratified only two.
The BGMEA president Md Atiqul Islam said the challenges and way forward in achieving the $50 billion target were identified through the sessions in the summit.
The BGMEA will have further dialogues to identify the way out of the challenges that were discussed in the summit.
Atiq said more than 85 local and international speakers and about 6,000 people took part the seminars.
Participants of the seminars identified developed infrastructure, political stability, knowledge and education, workers safety, constructive criticism and good governance as necessary in achieving the $50 billion export target, he said.
Dhaka University professor Syed Ferhat Anwar, BGMEA vice presidents SM Mannan Kochi, Shahidullah Azim, Reaz-Bin-Mahmood, former vice president Fazlul Azim, Siddiqur Rahman and Faruque Hassan also attended the programme.
-With New Age input
