–Wares Ali Khan–

The term development implies a broader and holistic concept that necessarily encompasses the domain of advancements concerning people’s inclusivity and participation, safeguarding the collective interest, transfiguring public ownership and sustaining well-being in a flattened manner. Our country is largely dependent on its garment industry, which affords the major portion (almost 80%) of the total export earnings to the national economy. Nearly four million men and women are directly reliant on this sector. A huge number of manual workers exert labour here for their livelihood and make quality garments for the Western world’s brand outlets and thus contribute a lot to the flow of national income by securing foreign currency and expediting forex reserves.

However, there are several reasons to be thoughtful that Vietnam, now in the third position, is a very close contestant to Bangladesh in garment manufacturing and has been heading speedily to be the dominant garment exporting country in the world. Vietnam has a sound labour-welfare and fair-wage policy, national commerce guidelines, standard compliance modality, skilled human resources, a stable and worker-friendly factory environment, and, of course, its technology-driven modern machinery. In contrast, we have a comparatively chief labour force. By and large, we are to undergo unrest, chaos and conflict of interest between workers and owners, substandard compliances and worker welfare policies, and the absence of stable and decent job places in factory environments. Yet we are making quality garments, beating up Vietnam, with all-out pushing the entire boundaries and obstacles. It is to be noted that in the future, this tech giant Vietnam will remain a good competitor in this sector within its augmented capacity.

Against this grim backdrop, our country must establish a national wage policy, competitive fringe benefits, safety and compliance for the workers to create a congenial environment to be the market-dominating country in exporting garments in the entire world. We have also noticed the whimsical and sudden layoff early in 2020 in this sector. After taking charge of statecraft and its necessary executions, the interim government has been struggling hard to tame the chaotic situation and sudden unrest in the industries. Following a recent logging and anticipated ill-motive move in the sector, many workers demonstrated to get their jobs back and a fair wage, blocking the roads and showcasing violent approaches, blockades, and arson attacks. Furthermore, several incidents, such as setting fire to and collapsing factory buildings, have been manifested over the last couple of days. This dire scenario is entirely unsought for the sake of our country and the industry as well. Henceforth, owners should work for the workers’ safety and betterment and monetary incentives, as workers are an integral part of the industry. Policy-level interventions must go on, determining a win-win situation.

The lion’s share of the garment’s raw materials and accessories are sourced from China. Rather than being dependent on China, the concerned quarters must think of becoming self-sufficient in managing quality raw materials and accessories within the country’s territory. If it happens, the industry will be able to thrive with maximum earnings in the years to come and lower its production cost and time.

Another contributing sector to the country’s national income is foreign remittance, which is generated by our hard-fought expatriate workers. There is a huge requirement for workers in the Middle East and other countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Italy, Greece, South Korea, Australia, Austria, Canada and South Africa. As the overseas recruitment policy of the concerned countries fairly changes, our migrant workers hardly draw a moderate salary, complying with the reformed as well as newly adopted policies. In multiple adversities and challenges, many expatriate workers remain engaged with backbreaking jobs. So, a sustainable human resource management policy for workers abroad must be adopted and come into practice to incentivise our true fin-fighters.

Bangladesh must create substitutes other than its prevailing expatriate earnings, and the garment industry. At least the country must have other sectors along with the prior two to keep consistency with the flow of the national earnings. Since Bangladesh has become free from the clutch of the fascist ruler and has already paved the way to be envisioned with the youth spirit, let the game of changes on and the window of opportunities keep wide open. In this respect, policymakers, economic think tanks, financial stakeholders, and monetary policymakers necessitate addressing and determining other core wings for generating gross income rigorously strengthening the country’s national capacity. On the other hand, predetermined two sectors of receiving foreign currency should be reshaped and must come under specific guidelines and pragmatic policies to sustain balanced economic growth and robust our total national income.

In particular, Bangladesh is approaching the fourth industrial revolution, which requires a set of unique criteria to face the multifarious challenges and cope with global competition and the forthcoming trade world. To embrace the inevitable perceptiveness of becoming a people-oriented country and to keep pace with the planned development, the building of national capacity is significant. So, comprehensive development of the policies should be initiated to make humans a worthy capital, ensuring optimal utilisation of natural resources, and structuring economic capacity by introducing substitutional sectors on the grounds of intense necessity.

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The writer is a principal and edu-entrepreneur