Bangladesh Conference June 2005
Forum for the Future: 27 - 28th June 2005
On June 27th and 28th 2005 the MFA Forum in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) held a conference to launch a joint initiative to identify a road map to a viable, profitable and internationally responsible and competitive textile and garment industry in Bangladesh. Around 150 delegates represented the key stakeholders in the Bangladesh garment and textile industry and spent two days identifying the main challenges facing the industry and agreeing steps toward a roadmap for sustaining the RMG industry.
The key messages derived by consensus by all stakeholders at the Forum for the Future conference were:
1) The need to sustain and grow both the textile and the ready-made garment industries in Bangladesh.
2) Compliance with international labour standards and national labour legislation is a key issue and factories need to address elements such as freedom of association and collective bargaining, employment contracts, living wage, reasonable working hours, weekly holidays and health and safety measures. Such compliance would meet the requirements of most corporate codes of conduct making the industry more attractive to the brands and retailers.
3) Buyers from brands/retailers need to work collaboratively to agree a common approach both to code content and implementation criteria.
4) Buying practices need to be reviewed, again collaboratively, to ensure that a fair price is paid for sourced products and to minimise the detrimental impact on suppliers, specifically from unrealistic delivery schedules.
In addition, all stakeholders agreed that it was imperative to work together collaboratively to address these issues in a time-bound and joined-up way. Further, that the Ministry of Commerce should take the lead in establishing a Task Force with a key task of establishing a tripartite dialogue - with input from other stakeholders - and charged with strengthening the industries, ensuring structurally sound, safe and healthy workplaces as well as rapid social compliance.
In addition, the buyers of the MFA Forum started a Bangladesh Buyers Group to respond and address the call for a common approach both to code content and implementation criteria; and a review of buying practices. In addition, the buyers have agreed to respond to the request by the industry to set out a realistic timeframe in which full compliance ought to be reached, and a plan for supporting this shift in the industry.
Shortly after the June Conference, the Government of Bangladesh set up a National Forum on Social Compliance to pursue the commitments made by industry and government. The first multi-stakeholder meeting of the National Forum was in August 2005, and the MFA Forum took part in this meeting and wrote a summary report of their visit to Bangladesh.