Mostafiz Uddin

When people write about automation, they often discuss it as if this is some futuristic development which will change the way we do business.

High streets around the world are changing rapidly. The coronavirus pandemic has led to a great many store closures and seen more and more businesses shift online in our major export markets.

Who is thinking of the manufacturers? Who is considering the garment workers?

Many of us will have heard the story of the boiled frog. Legend has it that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will instantly leap out. But if you put it in a pot filled with pleasantly tepid water and gradually heat it, the frog will remain in the water until it boils to death.

Among the main characteristics which brands look for when entering a sourcing destination are political stability. Stability brings confidence and certainty and allows brands and retailers to plan long-term.

Issues around sustainability come and go, but some topics will remain as important now as they were before the current global pandemic began.

We are hearing a lot of businesses and brands make pledges about the climate at present. Along with pledges to cut climate emissions, there is talk of cutting water use, chemical use, and addressing a range of other supply chain issues. The overall goal is to improve sustainability.

How do we as consumers make the right purchasing decisions? Most of us these days wish to buy products and services with a reduced environmental footprint.

At present, the RMG industry in Bangladesh employs around four million people, a large majority of them women with dependent families.

The global apparel industry is broken and only urgent, drastic surgery can fix it. I am not talking about another initiative or another public relations exercise. I am talking about deep, systemic change to be agreed by all involved—by brands, by suppliers, governments, unions and NGOs.

During the past few months, I had worked on a documentary for the BBC which looks at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the apparel industry of Bangladesh.

In the past 12 months, we have seen overwhelming commitments made by the global apparel industry towards circular economy and making fashion circular.

We are still here and still fighting, even though the past few months have been tough. Myself, and many of my contemporaries running garment factories in Bangladesh are well qualified, experienced, we have the training and we have the knowledge. But absolutely nothing could have prepared us for the past few months.

In the discussions around climate impacts and business, a missing link is often the consumer.

One of my favourite quotes goes something like this: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil but by those who watch them without doing anything.” The quote is by Albert Einstein and was made with reference to how easy it is for tyrannical leaders to take power and wreak havoc.

A new study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) suggests that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic will be deep and long-lasting.

The huge changes we are seeing in the global apparel industry right now are bewildering and unsettling for many of us. A tsunami has swept through the Bangladesh apparel sector and it is hard to believe that things will ever be quite the same again in our industry.

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc within the global apparel industry and its supply chains and continues to have a devastating impact on sourcing hubs such as our own.

Running a business is a hard slog. It involves long hours, lots of stress, lots of responsibility and rarely a time to switch off and relax. I am not complaining—that is the life I have chosen, and I feel blessed I have been given the privilege to run my own company.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the Covid-19 crisis, which has done so much damage to our industry, was with regard to some of the emails and letters businesses received from their apparel brand customers.