Refayet Ullah Mirdha

The recently terminated employees of Debenhams’ Bangladesh office yesterday demanded full payment of the wages and other monetary benefits owed to them by the London-based multinational retailer as per Bangladesh’s labour laws.

Bangladesh has joined hands with peer least-developed countries (LDCs) to appeal to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for the continuation of trade benefits they currently enjoy following status graduation to developing nations considering the pandemic’s ill-effect on economies.

Bangladesh remains one of the top sourcing destinations after China for international clothing retailers and brands even during the coronavirus pandemic because of its competitive prices, according to a new report by leading supply chain compliance solutions provider QIMA.

The findings of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) on job losses and shuttering of garment factories for the coronavirus pandemic have been trashed by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE).

The Bangladesh Bank has relaxed rules on securing funds from pre-shipment credit schemes and the Export Development Fund so that exporters can avail soft loans to expedite shipments and make their international business more competitive.

The government may consider another stimulus package for garment exporters such that they can pay workers’ wages of August, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday.

The US Trade Representative (USTR), the chief trade negotiator for the Trump administration, has sought a list of retailers that cancelled work orders with Bangladeshi firms due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladesh has urged US investors to set up Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing plants in Bangladesh to ensure its availability at lower cost for people of the country.

The government has extended policy support to garment exporting factories falling under the small and medium enterprise (SME) category to improve their competitiveness during this time of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is a historic event for any citizen when their beloved country makes the graduation from a least-developed country (LDC) to a developing country thanks to the unanimous recognition of its economic performance by a UN body.

Officially, Bangladesh is still the second-largest garment exporter worldwide and it is expected that the country will be able to retain its second position globally because of the regular flow of work orders with the reopening of the stores in the western world.

The government is targeting to increase tea production by about 46 per cent to 140 million kilograms by 2025 in a bid to meet the growing domestic demand for the beverage, said Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi.

The sale of yarn and fabrics of export-oriented spinning and weaving mills is on the rise thanks to a higher inflow of work orders from international clothing retailers.

Seasonal traders of rawhide have been left disappointed by this year’s sales as the price for untanned leather has remained low for two consecutive years now.

That very low prices of rawhides will be able to keep prices of leather goods such as footwear and bags from going abnormally high in the domestic markets is not necessarily true, finds research of the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC).

News of garment work order cancellations and holdups and deferred payments became commonplace when pandemic struck.

Cotton imports witnessed a slump for the first time in over a decade last fiscal year due to a fall in demand from local mills amid a stunning drop in apparel work orders for the global coronavirus pandemic.

The government will allow construction of effluent treatment plants (ETPs) by individual tanneries inside the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate (STIE) in a bid to expedite the process of obtaining much-needed certification from the Leather Working Group (LWG) to boost export of leather goods.

It appears garment manufacturers are at last breathing a sigh of relief as work orders for apparel items from international retailers are coming back with the reopening of their stores in the European and American markets.

The government was hoping there would be no recurrence of the waste of rawhide last Eid-ul-Azha.