tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78357475632511675402024-02-19T17:42:47.191+06:00Fashion Wizard LimitedExporting Apparels from BangladeshMasoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comBlogger321125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-12412315074119346552023-08-22T19:40:00.005+06:002023-08-22T19:43:13.983+06:00The History Of Apparels<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIL66K80zuf11txpH9dawW0lO4DrUR50FCmXf0ot9VS_YCyQ6lV6_tjKA696p8d23VlxUmyGANwhyisCMA9ieKEmgR4MESrC0SqcHs1_kHXaZL6V3LhJjODMQiGp5iqwH_nPrhFFiLAMVu7edOI1jj1_kwmc3lQOZieNgzj_lIG1RcOiq7px82iLT2bDg/s354/69961b5dd8ffe3205dbded29d9348484.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="236" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIL66K80zuf11txpH9dawW0lO4DrUR50FCmXf0ot9VS_YCyQ6lV6_tjKA696p8d23VlxUmyGANwhyisCMA9ieKEmgR4MESrC0SqcHs1_kHXaZL6V3LhJjODMQiGp5iqwH_nPrhFFiLAMVu7edOI1jj1_kwmc3lQOZieNgzj_lIG1RcOiq7px82iLT2bDg/s320/69961b5dd8ffe3205dbded29d9348484.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> <span face="Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; color: #374151; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The history of apparel is a fascinating journey that spans thousands of years and reflects the evolution of human society, culture, technology, and aesthetics. Here's a brief overview of the history of apparel:</span><p></p><ol style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; counter-reset: list-number 0; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 1.25em 0px; padding: 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; counter-increment: list-number 1; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">Early Human Clothing (Prehistoric Era):</span> The earliest human beings likely used animal skins and plant materials to cover their bodies for protection against the elements. These early garments were simple and functional, serving to provide warmth and modesty.</p></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; counter-increment: list-number 1; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">Ancient Civilizations:</span></p><ul style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; list-style: disc; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">Egyptian Civilization (3000-30 BCE):</span> Egyptians used linen fabric for clothing due to the abundance of flax in the Nile River valley. Clothing was often lightweight and comfortable due to the hot climate. Social status and profession often dictated the style and quality of clothing.</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">Mesopotamian Civilization (3500-539 BCE):</span> The Sumerians and Babylonians wore garments made of wool and linen. Clothing also held significance in terms of social status and occupation.</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">Greek and Roman Civilizations (800 BCE-476 CE):</span> Clothing in ancient Greece and Rome was draped and wrapped, with styles varying based on gender, social class, and occasion. The toga is one of the most iconic Roman garments.</li></ul></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; counter-increment: list-number 1; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">Medieval and Renaissance Periods (5th-15th Century):</span> During the Middle Ages, clothing became more complex and elaborate. The fashion of this period was influenced by religious beliefs, class distinctions, and practicality. The Renaissance saw a revival of interest in ancient Greek and Roman styles.</p></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; counter-increment: list-number 1; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">16th-18th Centuries:</span></p><ul style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; list-style: disc; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">Renaissance and Baroque Eras (14th-17th Century):</span> Clothing became even more ornate and extravagant. Corsets, ruffs, and voluminous sleeves were popular during this time.</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">18th Century:</span> Rococo and neoclassical styles emerged, characterized by flowing fabrics, pastel colors, and a focus on natural shapes. This period also saw the rise of specialized clothing for different activities.</li></ul></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; counter-increment: list-number 1; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">19th Century:</span></p><ul style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; list-style: disc; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;">The Industrial Revolution led to advancements in textile production, making clothing more affordable and accessible.</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;">Fashion trends shifted throughout the century, from the romanticism of the early 1800s to the more practical and tailored clothing of the late 1800s.</li></ul></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; counter-increment: list-number 1; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">20th Century:</span></p><ul style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; list-style: disc; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;">Clothing became more standardized and mass-produced with the advent of sewing machines and industrial manufacturing.</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;">Fashion trends evolved rapidly, reflecting changing social attitudes and technological innovations. Styles such as flapper dresses, poodle skirts, bell-bottoms, and power suits defined various decades.</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;">The latter half of the century saw the emergence of casual wear, sportswear, and the influence of subcultures on fashion.</li></ul></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; counter-increment: list-number 1; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><span color="var(--tw-prose-bold)" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">21st Century:</span></p><ul style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; list-style: disc; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;">Technology has had a significant impact on fashion, from online shopping to 3D-printed clothing and wearable technology.</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;">Sustainable fashion practices gained prominence due to environmental concerns.</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; min-height: 28px; padding-left: 0.375em;">Fashion has become more diverse and inclusive, with a focus on representing various cultures, body types, and identities.</li></ul></li></ol><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Throughout history, clothing has served utilitarian, cultural, and social purposes, reflecting the values and aspirations of each era. It continues to be a dynamic and evolving aspect of human expression.<br /></p>Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-74605468099839650222013-06-04T00:50:00.004+06:002013-06-04T00:50:55.362+06:00Consumers won't accept garments made in sweat shops<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>Clothes will become more expensive after the factory collapse in Bangladesh, the world's leading expert on ethical fashion has predicted, says a report published in online edition of The Daily Telegraph, Thursday.<br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Speaking at the Telegraph Hay Festival, Sandy Black, Professor of Fashion & Textile Design & Technology at the University of the Arts London, said consumers will no longer accept garments made in sweat shops.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">She said the recent fire in Bangladesh that killed 1,000 people highlighted the human cost of cheap clothes. "These things have been happening over a period of time but this one has been so big it has finally hit the mainstream," she said. As a result corporations will have to start paying workers a fair wage.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The author of The Sustainable Fashion Handbook predicted an end to the "race for the bottom" as retailers try and sell the cheapest clothes. "I cannot see how things can continue to be as cheap as they are. There has to be a cost somewhere to somebody."</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">She said consumers are better informed thanks to the internet and will not buy from companies exposed for abusing workers. Industry initiatives, Government pressure and voluntary schemes have also helped. She pointed out that doubling the price of workers' pay will barely add 50p to the price of a t-shirt.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">"I think the cost of clothes does need to go up," she said. "We have had this race to the bottom. Nothing can be much worse than what has happened."</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Prof Black said people can still save money by buying good quality clothes and make do and mend. She said making your own clothes is also popular following the BBC's Great British Sowing Bee.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Textiles are the fastest growing sector in household waste. Every year consumers in the UK buy two million tonnes of clothes of which 1.2m tonnes ends up in landfill. Just 300,000 is reused or recycled while the rest ends up in the back of the "national wardrobe".</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">She predicted an end to the "Primark Effect" as people start spending more on clothes once again and making them last rather than buying cheap clothes and throwing them away.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMDVfMjRfMTNfMV8yXzE3MDQyOA%3D%3D&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thefinancialexpress-bd%2FIouH+%28The+Financial+Express%29"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMDVfMjRfMTNfMV8yXzE3MDQyOA%3D%3D&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thefinancialexpress-bd%2FIouH+%28The+Financial+Express%29</span></a></div>
Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-44683222922506246642013-06-04T00:48:00.003+06:002013-06-04T00:49:19.150+06:00Case for addressing anti-export bias in FY 2013-14 budget<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>Over the past two decades, Bangladesh has emerged as the second largest readymade garments {RMG} exporter in the world after China. Driven by this one product group, exports have averaged comfortable double digit growth for the entire period. Prospects for sustained high export performance are bright, though vulnerabilities remain. One primary source of vulnerability arises from "export concentration" characterized by the extreme reliance of export earnings on just one product - RMG.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The problem has been duly identified by analysts and policymakers alike, and the need for export diversification is well recognized by the government which, to be fair, has made it a cornerstone of trade policy. But, judging from the record thus far, results are modest. Though the number of export products has increased over time, the share of RMG in the export basket has remained steady at 75-79% for the past decade. This is partly due to the approach taken to address the challenge, which has been to identify products with strong past growth record or assessment of potential comparative advantage using some indicator like revealed comparative advantage (RCA), and to include these among the "thrust sectors" in industrial or export policy to give them all kinds of support in preference to other sectors not so identified. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The emphasis of trade or industrial policy based on the principle of thrust sectors has its merits and demerits. It is a fact that RMG was never a thrust sector at its inception three decades ago. Most recently, ship building has emerged as a viable and prospective export sector to everyone's surprise. The thrust sector approach is largely a post facto device to distribute public resources rather than an effective criterion to diversify production or exports going forward. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">What is missing in this approach is a proper diagnostic of what generates the momentum for export concentration in one product to the exclusion of others. To be sure, any strategy for export diversification should not create conditions to stem the existing momentum associated with the lead product but contain adequate incentives to generate momentum for the emergence and expansion of other products. A study by Policy Research Institute (PRI) of Bangladesh -- 2012 PRI study for the World Bank, "Assessment of Effective Rates of Protection 2012 survey of selected manufacturing enterprises" -- has revealed that, in the ultimate analysis, it is a matter of relative incentives that determine resource allocation across competing activities in production for domestic sales or exports. It also established that while non-RMG exports suffered from significant anti-export bias of incentives (resulting in exports of a product being less profitable than its domestic sales propped up by high protection), RMG sector - being a 100% export-oriented sector -- was largely immune to it. The consequence of this structure of relative incentives seemed to accentuate the uni-product export concentration. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Policies and institutions that favour export expansion will also be conducive to export diversification. Bangladesh is probably a unique case where this proposition might not hold. This is because the high reliance on RMG exports has put in place institutions and policies that give high priority to this sector resulting in an asymmetry of policy support that accentuates the existing uni-product export concentration, on the one hand, and also hinders the emergence and growth of non-RMG exports, on the other. Given the size of the global market for textiles and clothing, Bangladesh's strong market position in RMG is unlikely to diminish anytime soon. Given that (a) China is moving away from basic garments to high-value products, (b) Japan, the second largest apparel market in the world, has opened up to Bangladeshi garment exports, and (c) emerging markets are becoming significant buyers of Bangladeshi garments, McKinsey and Company - "Bangladesh's Readymade Garments Landscape: The Challenge of Growth" - project (2011) that Bangladesh RMG exports will double by 2015, and triple by 2020. Nevertheless, the case for diversifying Bangladesh's export basket in the interests of reducing vulnerability from industry-specific shocks has been made. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The following policy and institutional mechanisms need to be put in place if export diversification is to be attained within a reasonable period:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">l Trade policy bias against exports must be eliminated. As for the trade policy regime, PRI research in the past year has highlighted the fact that the tariff structure is generally skewed in favour of import-substituting activities with a substantial anti-export bias. Because of the essentially "free trade enclave" created for RMG production -- a 100% export-oriented industry -- it is not affected so much by the anti-export bias of the incentive regime as are other exports. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">However, in recent years, the government has taken some steps to selectively provide such facilities like special bonded warehouse or SBW (previously restricted for 100% export-oriented firms like RMG) to exporting firms that satisfy a critical minimum export volume, thus mitigating some of the anti-export bias. We find that an increasing number of non-RMG exporting firms are now making use of this facility which is the principal means by which the dis-incentives from a high-tariff regime can be mitigated. This process needs to be sustained and made more effective. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Nevertheless, a major challenge in the forthcoming budget of fiscal year (FY) 2013-14 will be to address the issue of anti-export bias in the tariff structure because it hurts emerging and potential exports, thus serving as a policy constraint to export diversification. It is imperative that the unusually high effective rate of protection (ERP) for import-substitute production needs to be scaled down. The process needs to start with the FY2013-14 budget by reversing the growing wedge between output and input tariffs. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">l Efficiency of customs administration. A transparent and efficient customs administration is ideal for export success. Again, it is not enough to provide green channel clearance for RMG cargo while leaving the remaining exports at the mercy of an archaic and incompetent customs administration. All exports must be brought within the fold of automated clearance mechanism that is equipped with state of the art hardware and software. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">l Efficiency of import-export procedures. It would be foolish to think that improving trade infrastructure means focusing on rapid clearance of export cargo. Export and imports are intricately linked so that export performance depends critically on simplification of import procedures as well. Modernization of import clearance by installing the latest machinery and equipment along with information technology (IT) software's is absolutely critical to achieve export diversification. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">l Transparency and efficiency of behind-the-border services. Besides providing the support of modern banking and financial institutions to trade, industrial and investment policies need to be brought in line with those of trading partners and comparators so that a dynamic export sector can be sustained for the long-term.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">l Availability and quality of transport infrastructure and services. Improving trade logistics will definitely enhance competitiveness of exports. First, land and sea ports must be equipped with state of the art facilities - container depots, gantry cranes, IT-enabled port clearance services, etc. -- for rapid clearance of import-export cargo. Road, rail, river, and air transports linking the hinterland to the ports must be developed to the highest level of sophistication so that transaction time and costs are minimal, to ensure export competitiveness.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">l Availability and use of IT. Export success along with export diversification calls for rapidly installing state of the art IT equipment and software for handling activities at the ports but also inland for as much of the behind-the-border activities as are related to trade. Export competitiveness in the 21st century is as much a matter of producing at the lowest cost as it is about producing with the support of the best and latest technology. In this regard, it is critical to run and stay with the latest versions of hardware and software, or else export success could be short-lived. (More on page 4. The writer, Dr. Zaidi Sattar, is Chairman, Policy Research Institute (PRI), Bangladesh.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMDVfMjdfMTNfMV8xXzE3MDc4Mw%3D%3D&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thefinancialexpress-bd%2FIouH+%28The+Financial+Express%29"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMDVfMjdfMTNfMV8xXzE3MDc4Mw%3D%3D&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thefinancialexpress-bd%2FIouH+%28The+Financial+Express%29</span></a><br />
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-54615023682397563642013-06-04T00:42:00.005+06:002013-06-04T01:00:49.349+06:00Striking Workers Clash With Colleagues at Cambodian Garment Factory<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Garment workers push against the gates of a factory owned by Sabrina Garment Manufacturing during their protest in Kampong Speu province, west of the capital Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 3, 2013." height="360" src="http://gdb.voanews.com/48D3D5B4-326C-4611-9E87-FF26A7DE841E_w268_r1_cx0_cy6_cw0.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> — About 4,000 striking workers on Monday forced their way into a factory in Cambodia that makes clothing for U.S. sportswear company Nike and clashed briefly with colleagues who had remained on the job before being dispersed by police.<br /><br />Police said at least 11 policemen and eight workers were injured.<br /><br />The confrontation at the Sabrina factory followed a series of deadly incidents at factories in Bangladesh, the world's biggest clothing exporter after China, including the collapse of a building in April that killed more than 1,000 people.<br /><br />Witnesses said many of the workers pressing for a wage increase at the Sabrina plant west of Phnom Penh were armed with sticks and rocks and smashed windows before being confronted by non-strikers.<br /><br /><strong>Violent confrontation</strong><br /><br />About 1,000 police and soldiers used batons and shields to separate the sides and disperse the strikers.<br /><br />“We had to break them up in order to protect the whole factory from destruction,” Kheng Tito, a national military police spokesman, told Reuters.<br /><br />Sao Sreytouch, a striking worker, said she was confronted by other workers with sticks and steel pipes upon entering the factory, where workers walked out on May 21.<br /><br />Sun Vanny, president of the Free Trade Union [FTU] at Sabrina, accused police and factory owners of colluding “to cause chaos” and force an end to the strike.<br /><br />Hong Luy, chief of administration for Sabrina [Cambodia] Garment Manufacturing said last week that the company could not afford to raise workers' pay, which stood at the equivalent of up to $102 a month.<br /><br /><strong>Compensation is key issue</strong><br /><br />A spokeswoman for Nike told Reuters last week that compensation at the Cambodian factory was the responsibility of the factory, but that Nike was in “close contact” with the factory and would “continue to monitor the situation”.<br /><br />“It is our understanding that this factory raised its own minimum wage on May 1 and pays above the country's minimum wage,” Nike spokeswoman Mary Remuzzi told Reuters by e-mail last week.<br /><br />The sportswear giant has five factories in Cambodia, representing just 0.6 percent of its global total.<br /><br />The deadly incidents in Bangladesh and other mishaps, including a collapse at a factory in central Cambodia that killed two people, have generated renewed global interest in safety standards.<br /><br />Many Western brands, attracted by cheap labor, have turned to Asia to have garments made at a cost that will make them attractive to bargain hunters in Europe and North America.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/striking-workers-clash-with-colleagues-at-cambodian-garment-factory/1674027.html"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.voanews.com/content/striking-workers-clash-with-colleagues-at-cambodian-garment-factory/1674027.html</span></a></div>
Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-53408077000673431392013-06-04T00:40:00.005+06:002013-06-04T00:40:49.054+06:00Majority of Bangladesh garment factories 'vulnerable to collapse'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19px;">Survey conducted in wake of Rana Plaza factory collapse reveals three-fifths of such buildings are cause for concern</span></div>
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The Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, sparked global outrage. Photograph: Andrew Biraj/Reuters</div>
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Three-fifths of garment factories in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bangladesh" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Bangladesh">Bangladesh</a> are vulnerable to collapse, according to a survey by engineers in the country.</div>
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Last month concrete pillars supporting the eight-storey Rana Plaza building on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, gave way. More than 1,100 people, mainly young women making clothes for UK retailers such as Primark were killed in one of the world's worst industrial accidents.</div>
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The survey's revelation that the lives of millions of Bangladeshi workers, often making goods for western firms, are at risk will concern western retailers which, following global outrage after the Rana Plaza collapse, are now moving to improve security and conditions in the Bangladesh factories that supply their shops. Bangladesh is the world's second biggest supplier of clothes. More than 80% are exported to Europe or the US. The £13bn industry employs about 3.5 million people, mainly young women, and is a major foreign currency earner for Bangladesh.</div>
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The survey is the work of a team of engineers from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). They have so far surveyed a sixth of 600 buildings that house more than 3,000 clothes factories.</div>
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"Somewhere around 60% of the buildings are vulnerable," said Prof Mehedi Ansary, who leads the team. "This doesn't mean they will collapse in the next week or month, but it does mean that to leave them unchanged would be irresponsible."</div>
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Managers ignored warning signs such as cracks, which appeared in the days before the Rana Plaza collapse on 24 April in the Dhaka suburb of Savar. Workers said they were told there was no cause for worry and they should get back to work.</div>
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The BUET team is conducting a visual survey of buildings housing workshops, as well as examining soil tests and original plans. Although there are more than 3,000 active factories, permits have been given for more than 5,000. Many, particularly those in the centre of Dhaka, are in buildings that have been converted from residences or offices.</div>
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According to the police report into the Rana Plaza collapse, permission was given in 2006 for a five-storey building. This was correctly designed and constructed, according to Ansary, who has examined the plans. But three more floors were later added, with documents falsified to obtain permission from local authorities, he said. This extension overloaded the structure.</div>
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Its owner, Sohel Rana, has been charged over the collapse. Investigations have suggested that he abused his influence as a local boss of the ruling Awami League party to divert the authorities' attention.</div>
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The immediate trigger for the collapse appears to have been vibrations caused by generators, which provided electricity during frequent power cuts.</div>
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The factories in buildings not intended for industrial purposes, both in Dhaka and Bangladesh's second city of Chittagong, are of most concern. Many were set up without any regulatory oversight in the early years of the garment industry boom.</div>
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Ansary said that "there may be lots of very vulnerable [factories] we don't know about" but the team "did not want to create panic so we are saying they can run for the moment".</div>
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Two different agreements among western firms such as Primark, Walmart, Carrefour, H&M, Gap, Tesco and other are household names are being negotiated to improve working conditions. These would theoretically commit retailers to taking measures that would prevent another tragedy, as well as providing funds for improvements.</div>
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The Bangladesh Garment Makers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has also implemented further measures. The Ansary-led survey follows a new demand by BGMEA to its members to provide it with building plans and soil tests to show the structural strength of their factories.</div>
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"It is a very hard time. We have to learn the lessons from Rana Plaza and Tasreen [a factory which burned down killing 114 last year]," said Atiqul Islam, president of the association.</div>
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Islam said 75% of BGMEA member had now submitted plans for their factories for inspection, but making all existing workshops safe was a "massive job".</div>
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Fire safety also remains a major problem. There have been a series of lethal fires in factories in Dhaka in recent years.</div>
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Last weekend, the Guardian visited a five-storey factory where more than 400 workers in tightly packed lines stitched and packed fleece winter jackets for sale in Europe. A single narrow stairwell was obstructed by piled cardboard boxes, windows were barred and an external fire exit had been removed. On the first floor an industrial boiler was separated from piles of card and clothes by a thin partition wall.</div>
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The manufacturers complain of "massive pressure" from buyers to keep prices low.</div>
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"Every year our cost of production is rising. Land, utilities, salaries, everything is going up. But the price of apparel is going down, It's a sick industry now," said Islam.</div>
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Workers typically earn a basic wage of around 5,000 takas (£40) a month, but can often make more with overtime. A new wage commission is likely to lead to an increase, as well as better conditions.</div>
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Some activists believe the tragedy may have prompted genuine change. "This is a historic turning point," said Kalpona Akter, of the Bangladesh Centre for Workers' Solidarity.</div>
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<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/03/bangladesh-garment-factories-vulnerable-collapse"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/03/bangladesh-garment-factories-vulnerable-collapse</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-20423012409785877772013-06-04T00:39:00.001+06:002013-06-04T00:39:11.770+06:00UK: Government pressures retailers on Bangladesh supply chains<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>The UK government is putting pressure on clothing retailers that source from Bangladesh to improve the safety of their supply chains in the country.<br />
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Development secretary Justine Greening has written to the CEOs of approximately 20 retailers to discuss how the Department for International Development (DFID) can work with them on the issue.</div>
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"DFID will work with companies to see how we can take the next step, whether it's signing up to ethical trading standards or going the extra mile in ensuring responsible business practices," said Greening.</div>
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The department said many high profile companies including <a href="http://www.just-style.com/companies/tesco_id265" style="color: #002c76;">Tesco</a>, <a href="http://www.just-style.com/companies/john-lewis_id453" style="color: #002c76;">John Lewis</a> and <a href="http://www.just-style.com/companies/marks-spencer_id39" style="color: #002c76;">Marks & Spencer</a> have signed up to the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) code supported by DFID, while others have yet to do so.</div>
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A series of deadly accidents in the country has killed more than 1,500 apparel workers in recent months. The collapse of the Rana Plaza building outside Dhaka at the end of April killed over 1,100 workers, while a fire at the Tazreen Fashion Factory at the end of November last year killed more than 110 people.</div>
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The letter comes ahead of a visit to Bangladesh by minister of state Alan Duncan, which will include talks with the Bangladeshi government on how the UK can support improvement in building standards through technical assistance. Duncan will also meet with international buyers based in Dhaka.</div>
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"The UK government is talking to the Bangladesh government about helping to improve building regulations, but there is more we can do. We want to work with businesses to keep up the momentum for change," a spokesperson told just-style.</div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-75056523697604748742013-06-04T00:36:00.001+06:002013-06-04T00:36:35.201+06:00EU reassures continued support for Bangladesh RMG trade<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The European Union has reassured Bangladesh of its continued support for the country’s readymade garment (RMG) trade and its further development.</div>
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EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton gave the assurance during her meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit in Singapore.</div>
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Various initiatives taken by the Bangladesh Government to address the flaws in the South Asian country’s garment sector were discussed by the Ministers at the meeting, according to BSS.</div>
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Ms. Moni informed the EU High Representative about the comprehensive plan of the Bangladesh Government, which includes all stakeholders, for ensuring better compliance in the garment sector.</div>
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She also briefed the EU representative about the setting up of new wage board and amendment to Labour Law.</div>
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On her part, Ms. Ashton said, the EU wants trade and investment to flourish in Bangladesh and expressed EU’s commitment to working in Bangladesh, especially in the interest of those working in the clothing sector, most of whom are women.</div>
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<a href="http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=146875"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=146875</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-42841748188523462932013-06-04T00:34:00.003+06:002013-06-04T00:34:25.270+06:00‘EU firms buying Bangladesh RMG must promote standards’<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Chairperson of the European Union’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) has urged European companies sourcing readymade garments (RMG) from Bangladesh to promote acceptable standards in the manufacturing units.</div>
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Mr. Brok had an exchange of views with Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni in Brussels last week.</div>
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During the meeting, AFET Chairperson said, “He wished to see the Government of Bangladesh implementing measures in the readymade garment industry, which would ensure concrete improvements in workplace safety and labour rights.”</div>
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A statement on the European Parliament website said AFET Chair also reminded that European companies purchasing RMG from Bangladesh must share the responsibilities.</div>
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The Chair also urged these companies to exercise control and promote acceptable standards in the factories.</div>
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<a href="http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=146846"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=146846</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-32101480244161206042013-06-04T00:33:00.000+06:002013-06-04T00:33:05.536+06:00Topshop among clothing stores told to help improve foreign factories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19px;">Development secretary Justine Greening to demand action on ethical trading and raising standards after deaths in Bangladesh</span></div>
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Sir Philip Green, pictured with Kate Moss, is head of Arcadia, which has a string of high-street retailers. Photograph: Richard Young/Rex</div>
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The chief executive of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/philip-green" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Sir Philip Green">Sir Philip Green</a>'s Arcadia clothing empire is to be put under pressure by the development secretary <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/justine-greening" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Justine Greening">Justine Greening</a> to commit to improving lives of workers making their products in the developing world <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/25/bangladesh-building-collapse-anger-search" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="">in the wake of the disaster in Bangladesh</a>.</div>
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Ian Grabiner, who has been Green's chief executive since 2009, is one of about 20 executives of high street clothing companies with supplies coming from <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bangladesh" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Bangladesh">Bangladesh</a> who are being invited to a meeting with Greening, where she will urge them to work with the government to raise standards.</div>
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In April, 1,127 workers were killed in the collapse of the clothing factory in the Dhaka suburb of Savar. In a second incident three weeks ago, eight people were killed in a fire at a factory in the capital that was producing clothes for western retailers, including Primark.</div>
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At least 1,800 Bangladesh garment industry workers have been killed in fires or building collapses since 2005.</div>
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Arcadia, which owns <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/topshop" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Topshop">Topshop</a>, BHS, Evans and Dorothy Perkins, is yet to sign up an Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) agreement between companies to impose a code of labour practice on all their suppliers, although Arcadia has agreed to sign an accord on fire and building safety in Bangladesh.</div>
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Eight other high-street retailers – Matalan, Aurora Fashions, Peacocks, Shop Direct, Hobbs, French Connection, Karen Millen and Austin Reed – whose executives have been invited to the meeting with Greening, have also failed to sign the ETI and will come under pressure to do so. Arcadia has previously said that it enforces its own code of conduct on suppliers, and that Bangladesh represents only a small percentage of its supply chain.</div>
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Greening told the <em style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Observer</em>: "The Department for International Development will work with companies to see how we can take the next step, whether it's signing up to ethical trading standards or going the extra mile in ensuring responsible business practices."</div>
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The call comes before a visit this week by Alan Duncan, the minister for international development, to Bangladesh, which will include talks with the Dhaka government on how the UK can support improvements in building standards.</div>
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An official investigation in Bangladesh found that causes of the disaster included the swampy ground that the factory was built on; the "extremely poor quality" construction materials; and the massive, vibrating equipment operating when the eight-storey building collapsed.</div>
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A <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/bangladesh-factory-collapse-rana-plaza" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Bangladesh factory collapse blamed on swampy ground and heavy machinery">committee appointed by the Bangladesh government to investigate the event recommended life prison sentences for the owners of the building</a>and of the five garment factories that operated there, though the charges they currently face carry a maximum seven-year term.</div>
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Since David Cameron's cabinet reshuffle, when Greening was moved from transport to international development, she has made economic development a priority for her department. In a speech in March she said: "I want to see an end to aid dependency through jobs. I believe Britain can be a force for good. I also believe British business can be."</div>
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A spokesman said: "The government is talking to the Bangladesh government about helping to improve building regulations, but there is more we can do. We want to work with businesses to keep up the momentum for change."</div>
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Other companies whose chief executives have been asked to attend the meeting with the development secretary include Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Next, Debenhams, New Look, Mothercare, Monsoon, Accessorize, Asos, Burberry and River Island. A statement on Arcadia's website says: "We do not own or operate factories and Arcadia Group is rarely dominant in an individual factory. We have strong working relationships with our network of international suppliers, 48% of which have been with us for three years or more.</div>
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"Arcadia brands work with around 700 suppliers that manufacture our goods in approximately 1,060 factories. The top 20 suppliers provide 44% of our goods."</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2013/jun/01/minister-fashion-stores-improve-factory-conditions">http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2013/jun/01/minister-fashion-stores-improve-factory-conditions</a></span></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-38424925618843627072013-06-01T03:10:00.003+06:002013-06-01T03:10:52.165+06:00US buyers announce new plan for factory safety in Bangladesh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Feeling pressure from consumer and labour groups for not doing more to ensure factory safety in Bangladesh, Wal-Mart, Gap and numerous other retailers along with the nation's main retail federations are seeking to forge a new plan to promote safety in that country's apparel industry, according to website http://www.nytimes.com/.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">This effort, to be spearheaded by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit group based in Washington, was announced on Thursday, two and a half weeks after dozens of retailers and apparel companies, almost all of them European, announced a far-reaching plan aimed at ensuring factory safety in Bangladesh.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">As part of the new effort, the National Retail Federation, the American Apparel and Footwear Association as well as Gap, JCPenney, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and other retailers, will seek to "develop and implement a new programme to improve fire and safety regulations in the garment factories of Bangladesh," according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">This effort will be led by two prominent members of that group, former Senators George J. Mitchell, a Democrat, and Olympia J. Snowe, a Republican, both from Maine.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">But some labour advocates called the effort divisive and a sham.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">After a factory building collapsed in Bangladesh on April 24, killing at least 1,127 workers, Western retailers faced more pressure than ever to take action to ensure factory safety in that country, the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China. In response, H&M, Carrefour, Marks & Spencer and more than two dozen other European companies backed a binding plan in which they agreed to rigorous independent inspections of the factories they use in Bangladesh and to help finance improvements for fire and building safety.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Only a few American retailers signed on, however. On Thursday, Sean John, the fashion company run by Sean Combs, announced that it would become the third United States company to join, following PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Abercrombie & Fitch. Loblaw, a Canadian retailer that produces the Joe Fresh clothing line, has also joined that plan.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">With about 40 companies signed on to that plan, Gap, the Children's Place and several other American retailers have faced protests and a flood of Facebook posts, urging them to join.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Bill Chandler, a Gap spokesman, welcomed the new effort. "We see the American alliance as a powerful path forward," he said. Jessica Deede, a Target spokeswoman, said, "We have been engaged with the Bipartisan Policy Center's initiative as a potential solution."</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The center said Mr. Mitchell, Ms. Snowe and the North American retailers would seek to release their plan by early July. The effort also includes the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the Retail Council of Canada.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">In assessing the new plan by American retailers, Richard M. Locke, an expert on overseas manufacturing at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T., said, "I think they must be feeling the heat because people are asking them, 'Why don't you join this other initiative?' "</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Professor Locke added: "The idea that you would bring all these people together in this new effort is a good first step. But I don't think it's good to have competing initiatives."</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Philip J. Jennings, general secretary of Uni Global Union, a worldwide federation of 20 million retail and service workers that helped develop the initial Bangladesh factory safety plan, criticised the new effort.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">"It's a sham," he said. "There is no valid reason why they can't join the initiative we have launched. It has been well received," he said, adding, "Now they seem to want to paddle their own canoe on their own terms."</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Officials from several American retailers have voiced concern that their companies would face large legal liability if they were to join the European-dominated plan. But several backers of that accord say the Americans are shying away because they dislike the binding obligations and potential costs of the plan.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">On Wednesday, officials from Wal-Mart, Gap and several other retailers met in New York to begin moving ahead with the plan. Kevin Gardner, a Wal-Mart spokesman, lauded the effort, saying, "There is a need to partner with other stakeholders to improve the standards for workers across the industry."</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMDZfMDFfMTNfMV8xXzE3MTMyNA%3D%3D&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thefinancialexpress-bd%2FIouH+%28The+Financial+Express%29"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMDZfMDFfMTNfMV8xXzE3MTMyNA%3D%3D&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thefinancialexpress-bd%2FIouH+%28The+Financial+Express%29</span></a></div>
Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-91313267569268293252013-06-01T03:09:00.004+06:002013-06-01T03:09:31.763+06:00Bangladesh to place proposal on post-2015 dev agenda in Sept<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong>400 dignitaries invited to attend</strong></div>
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DHAKA : Bangladesh will place its proposal to the United Nations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda in September prioritising a couple of issues, including eradicating poverty and reducing inequality, as the world is now getting closer to the terminal year of 2015 for the Millennium Develop-ment Goals (MDGs), reports UNB.<br />Like many other countries and regional forums, Bangladesh has been preparing a proposal for the Post-2015 Development Agenda (P2015DA) and it will be placed before the United Nations in September this year in a special session, officials said.<br />A national consultation on the Post-2015 Development Agenda will be held here on June 2 where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be present at the inaugural session. Ministers, advisers, high officials and civil society representatives and media members will also attend the national consultation.<br />During the daylong high-level conference, titled ‘National Conference on Post-2015 Development Agenda’, some 400 dignitaries were invited to attend and discuss the agenda for finalisation.<br />Talking to UNB, General Economics Division (GED) Member of the Planning Commission Prof Shamsul Alam said in this proposed P2015DA, attention has been given to the goals and targets conforming to the needs of the LDCs, LLDCs (Landlocked Least Developed Countries) and SIDs (Small Island Developing States) countries along with the stated responsibilities of the developed countries.</div>
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<a href="http://thebangladeshtoday.com/news/2013/05/bangladesh-to-place-proposal-on-post-2015-dev-agenda-in-sept/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://thebangladeshtoday.com/news/2013/05/bangladesh-to-place-proposal-on-post-2015-dev-agenda-in-sept/</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-4841522761510971282013-06-01T03:08:00.004+06:002013-06-01T03:08:42.149+06:00Tk 100cr BB scheme soon for improving factory conditions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">DHAKA : Bangladesh Bank (BB) has decided to launch a Tk 100 crore refinancing scheme soon for the infrastructural development of weak readymade garment (RMG) factories and improving working conditions with financial support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), reports UNB.</span><br style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;" /><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">“The decision has been finalised… both the central bank and JICA agreed on it. The refinancing scheme of Tk 100 crore will soon be launched,” BB assistant spokesperson AFM Asaduzzaman told UNB on Friday.</span><br style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;" /><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">He said the aim of the scheme is to help weak RMG factories improve their infrastructural and working conditions to fulfill the buyers’ demand.</span><br style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;" /><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">The official also said there will be more similar schemes with combined efforts of the BB, JICA, Bangladesh Garment manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) and financial institutions.</span><br />
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<a href="http://thebangladeshtoday.com/news/2013/05/tk-100cr-bb-scheme-soon-for-improving-factory-conditions/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://thebangladeshtoday.com/news/2013/05/tk-100cr-bb-scheme-soon-for-improving-factory-conditions/</span></a></div>
Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-32838520600132198152013-06-01T03:07:00.004+06:002013-06-01T03:07:49.878+06:00Japan to extend $10mn for Bangladesh RMG building safety<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Japan will extend a sum of Tk 1 billion (US$ 10 million) to Bangladesh for reconstruction of readymade garment (RMG) manufacturing factories in Bangladesh that are in dire state.</div>
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The loan will be issued by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under its small and medium loan programme to help Bangladesh to ensure safer working environment in the RMG manufacturing sector, said Sukamal Sinha Choudhury, general manager of SME and Special Programmes Department, Bangladesh Bank, the state news agency reported.</div>
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The decision to grant a soft loan to Bangladesh was taken during a recent meeting between the representatives of JICA and Bangladesh Bank held earlier this week.</div>
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Mr. Choudhury informed that an individual owner of RMG manufacturing unit in Bangladesh will be assigned a maximum of Tk 1 million (US$ 10,000) for support.</div>
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The monetary fund will be allocated to the Bangladesh RMG manufacturing units based on the reports generated by the JICA representatives after inspecting the units.</div>
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The Japanese bank plans to support 250 RMG manufacturing units in Bangladesh and has provisioned 10 years time for repayment with an additional grace period of two years.</div>
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<a href="http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=146797"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=146797</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-45567536928942300702013-06-01T03:06:00.004+06:002013-06-01T03:06:53.524+06:00Grim Task of Identifying Factories’ Dead Overwhelms Bangladeshi Lab<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Taslima Akhter for The New York Times</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The relatives of a victim of the Rana Plaza collapse grieve among bodies from the disaster at a morgue in Dhaka. At least 301 victims have not been identified.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">DHAKA, Bangladesh — Inside a small government laboratory here, there are about 300 test tubes, each labeled with masking tape and containing an extracted tooth or a shard of bone. Day and night, dozens of these tubes rest on metal trays that vibrate with a motorized monotony. The shaking decalcifies the bone in a process that requires two weeks before material can be gleaned for a DNA profile.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Outside the laboratory, people are waiting. There are at least 301 unidentified victims of last month’s horrific collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building. Those test tubes represent the only chance of identifying them. More than 500 people have given blood samples in the hopes of finding a DNA match. On a recent morning, Hasibul Islam Reaz, 10, placed a spindly arm before a needle, his eyes widening as his blood drained through a thin tube into a syringe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“If I give them blood,” the boy said softly, “I will learn where my father is, which body is his.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">First came the frantic search for survivors after Rana Plaza collapsed on April 24. Then came the grueling recovery of victims, with a death toll now at 1,129, the deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry. Now, with the wreckage cleared, the slow, painstaking process of identifying bodies has become a wrenching exercise, bringing accusations of cover-ups, even as many families struggle to find loved ones and qualify for government compensation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">With its venomous politics and blood-soaked history, Bangladesh is rife with conspiracy theories under normal circumstances. In the Rana Plaza collapse, opposition leaders have claimed — without substantiation — that the government has hidden bodies. Activists have accused the government and industry leaders of intentionally stalling promised compensation payments to survivors and families of the dead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The anger and controversy have only intensified the pressure on the small staff of the country’s National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory. Founded in 2006 with a grant from the Danish Embassy, the lab is now overwhelmed. Completing the DNA profiles could take months. New machines are needed to decalcify the bone samples. Approval is still pending for expensive software capable of sorting through the tens of thousands of possible DNA matches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“To handle normal situations, the lab is O.K.,” said Sharif Akhteruzzaman, who oversees operations there. “But now a whole year’s caseload has come up, all of a sudden.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">From the moment Rana Plaza collapsed, the scale of the disaster outstripped the capacities of the Bangladeshi government. In the initial days, as dozens of bodies were being pulled hourly from the wreckage, a nearby high school served as a staging area for thousands of people looking for missing relatives or just gawking. Bodies were placed in plank coffins and sprayed with disinfectant as lines of people walked slowly past.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Shaikh Yusuf Harun, deputy commissioner for the district of Dhaka, said the chaos of the moment inevitably led to confusion — and some mistakes. Initially, 291 bodies could not be identified. Officials have also since discovered that 10 bodies were mistakenly turned over to the wrong families and buried in distant villages. In three of those cases, families later discovered that their missing relatives were alive, while in the other seven, remains were simply handed over to the wrong people. There are plans to exhume the bodies and take bone or teeth samples.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Some opportunists took advantage of the tumult. With the huge crowds and local reporters pressing forward, officials were sometimes reluctant to challenge someone who claimed a body. In at least two cases, officials handed over bodies as well as initial payments of 20,000 taka, or about $250, to people who pocketed the cash and dumped the corpses at the edge of the school grounds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“It was a crisis,” Mr. Harun said. “There could have been a riot. Some officials had to hand over a body.”</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced a compensation package for families of those killed at Rana Plaza that could exceed $12,000, with the money coming from public and private sources. The amount is substantial, given that the minimum wage in the garment industry is $37 a month. Yet so far, only 150 families have received the first installment of about $1,100, according to Mr. Harun, prompting criticism that the government is purposely making it difficult for people to claim the money.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.467em;">Such disputes over compensation are still dragging on from </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/world/asia/bangladesh-fire-exposes-safety-gap-in-supply-chain.html" style="color: #666699; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.467em;" title="Times article">the fire in November that destroyed the Tazreen Fashions garment factory</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.467em;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.467em;">and killed 112 workers who had been making clothing for brands that included Walmart and Sears. One problem for families is merely proving that a relative worked in a factory: at Tazreen, just outside Dhaka, the flames that consumed many victims also destroyed their identification tags. And in the Rana Plaza collapse, rumors have swirled of bodies disappearing after being whisked away in trucks, prompting the leader of the political opposition to accuse the government of a cover-up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“In Rana Plaza, we suspect the death toll is much higher,” said Jyotirmoy Barua, a lawyer who has been working with victims of the Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza disasters. “The only reason for lowering the number is to lower the compensation.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But such accusations have been sharply rebutted by the government, and many others note that any coordinated effort to hide bodies would have been difficult, given the thousands of people who had rushed to the disaster site, including dozens of journalists filming every development.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“It was not possible,” Mr. Harun said of the rumors. “It is totally baseless.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One reason for the slow distribution of compensation is that officials say they are struggling in some cases to determine who the rightful claimants are. Most garment workers migrated to the Dhaka region from rural villages. They often supported a spouse and children, and they also sent back money to help their parents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Now, with the deaths of so many breadwinners, some families are desperate and fighting over the compensation. Mr. Harun said one woman, three months pregnant, lost her husband in the Rana Plaza collapse. She was given his body and his official documents, only to see his parents snatch the documents and make a claim for compensation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“There are so many cases like this,” Mr. Harun said. “We need to sort them out individually.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">At the DNA laboratory, Mr. Akhteruzzaman said his staff needed two or three months to begin making matches. Ordinarily, scientists can collect tissue soon after a victim’s death and produce a DNA profile within hours. But most of the bodies from Rana Plaza were recovered days or weeks after the building collapsed, too late to collect usable samples, so bone shards or teeth were taken instead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bone must be decalcified before any usable material can be collected, a process that takes two weeks per sample. Usually, the small shaking machines are equipped to handle 15 sample test tubes at a time; now, the test tubes are stacked in groups of 30. When that process is completed, Mr. Akhteruzzaman said, the lab must buy software similar to that used after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with the capacity of sorting through so many possible combinations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Even then, some victims will probably never be identified. “In every disaster, that is the case,” Mr. Akhteruzzaman said. “You cannot find all the people.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hasibul, the boy looking for his father, lives in Magura, a village in the northern tier of the country. In 2011, his father, Asadur Zaman, started working as a security guard at Ether Tex, a fifth-floor garment factory in Rana Plaza. He visited Magura twice a year, and his wife and young son made occasional trips to see him. When the building collapsed, Mr. Zaman’s family assumed he was inside: one of his responsibilities was to unlock the factory so that workers could enter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">To make a DNA match, officials suggested that either Mr. Zaman’s mother or father provide a blood sample. But his mother had died recently, and his father had a breakdown after hearing about the building collapse. So Hasibul stepped forward, escorted by his uncle, who said the family’s future depended on proving a DNA match.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“Now they have a terrible life,” said the uncle, Tariqul Islam. “They have no other source of income. The prime minister announced she would give compensation to all the victims. But if we don’t have any official proof, we will not get any compensation.”</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/world/asia/bangladeshi-lab-struggles-to-identify-rana-plazas-dead.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&partner=rss&emc=rss"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/world/asia/bangladeshi-lab-struggles-to-identify-rana-plazas-dead.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&partner=rss&emc=rss</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-1383131493849276442013-06-01T03:03:00.003+06:002013-06-01T03:03:19.650+06:00US: Retailers eye July release of Bangladesh safety plan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A group of US based retailers and brands working towards a new programme to improve fire and safety regulations in Bangladeshi garment factories is unlikely to finalise its plans until early July.</div>
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First details of the intended Safer Factories Initiative were revealed earlier this month, with just-style being told at the time that a more detailed strategy would be available within days or weeks.</div>
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However, it has now emerged that the action plan and implementation schedule will not be released until early July.</div>
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Groups representing the North American retailers met in New York this week for the first of several working sessions to be held over the next month.</div>
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The talks are being organised by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) and co-chaired by former US Senate majority leader and BPC co-founder George Mitchell and former US Senator and BPC senior fellow Olympia Snowe.</div>
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"Over the next several weeks, we look forward to building on the efforts of the Safer Factory Initiative (SFI) and seeking input from key stakeholders to forge an effective response," Jason Grumet, BPC president, said in a statement yesterday (30 May).</div>
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A transatlantic divide has emerged between apparel brands and retailers seeking to improve safety in Bangladesh garment factories after a series of deadly accidents killed more than 1,500 workers in recent months.</div>
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European firms including <a href="http://www.just-style.com/analysis/who-has-signed-the-bangladesh-safety-accord_id117856.aspx" style="color: #002c76;" target="_blank">H&M, Carrefour and Marks & Spencer</a> are favouring the new<a href="http://www.just-style.com/comment/what-does-the-new-bangladesh-safety-accord-entail_id117835.aspx" style="color: #002c76;" target="_blank">Accord on Fire and Building Safety</a>, while those in North America have gone their own way <a href="http://www.just-style.com/news/apparel-groups-unveil-own-bangladesh-safety-plans_id117861.aspx" style="color: #002c76;" target="_blank">with the Safer Factories Initiative</a>. US retailers such as Gap and Walmart are also planning to ramp up their own safety plans.</div>
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The alliance behind the Safer Factories Initiative includes participants from industry associations including the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), National Retail Federation (NRF), Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), and the Retail Council of Canada (RCC).</div>
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<a href="http://www.just-style.com/news/retailers-eye-july-release-of-bangladesh-safety-plan_id118014.aspx?utm_source=news-feed&utm_medium=rss-feed&utm_campaign=rss-feed"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.just-style.com/news/retailers-eye-july-release-of-bangladesh-safety-plan_id118014.aspx?utm_source=news-feed&utm_medium=rss-feed&utm_campaign=rss-feed</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-90219514452461829212013-06-01T03:01:00.004+06:002013-06-01T03:01:59.863+06:00PRI outlines 10-point reform for Bangladesh garment units<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Dhaka-based Policy Research Institute (PRI) has outlined a 10-point programme for reform of the readymade garment (RMG) manufacturing factories in Bangladesh.</div>
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The reform agenda titled “The Post-Rana Reform Roadmap” was outlined at a seminar organized by the Bangladesh Employer’s Federation (BEF), the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), and the PRI in Dhaka.</div>
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The 10-point roadmap aims to address the key safety and compliance issues facing the Bangladesh garment units, so as to avert repeat of disasters like the Rana Plaza building collapse that resulted in the death of over 1,100 people, most of them being female garment workers.</div>
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At least 1,000 apparel units are currently operating from unsafe buildings and their relocation would cost around Tk100 billion, states the PRI roadmap. It suggests that the relocation of such garment factories could be borne initially by the Government and its development partners, which could be paid back in subsequent years by the owners.</div>
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PRI recommends that such relocation of garment units be carried out in phases. It adds that garment clusters would have to be set up at different places, based on availability of land, for relocation of the clothing factories.</div>
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Besides new RMG economic zones, the roadmap deals with trade union, minimum wage increase, factory classification, BGMEA responsibilities, financing RMG reforms, health and safety standards or compliance monitoring, formation of new worker welfare fund, moving up the value chain, and branding and international PR management.</div>
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On BGMEA, the roadmap suggests that the association should conduct unannounced fire drills, after it has trained factory employees for at least three months. It adds that the garment body must ask its members to verify whether the property is in compliance with local zoning codes, before they take a building on lease. The association must also ask factories operating from non-compliant buildings to vacate within a stipulated timeframe.</div>
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The implementation of the roadmap for sustainable reform of the RMG units, will result in better compliance and regulations, and thereby improve efficiency and enhance the sector’s competitiveness as well as sustainability in the international market, experts said at the seminar.</div>
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<a href="http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=146765"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=146765</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-22635755203298992462013-05-31T03:51:00.003+06:002013-05-31T03:51:34.784+06:00BGMEA to make database in 3 months<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) will prepare a database containing service records of all workers in 3,200 registered garment factories.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">“At first, we will create a database of workers at factories in Dhaka and it would gradually be extended to Ashulia, Narayanganj and Chittagong within the next three months,” M Atiqul Islam, president of BGMEA, told BSS yesterday.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Atiqul, also managing director of Islam Dresses Ltd, said it would be a unique system for keeping records of garment workers in the country.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The salient feature of the proposed database would be the maintenance of history of each and every worker, he added.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Referring to small and large readymade garment (RMG) units, Atiqul said there was no exact data on how many skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers were now employed in the industry.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">“Even we do not know how many women workers are there in the industry…we felt that preparing a database has become indispensable for the sake of the country’s interest,” he said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The BGMEA president said the association would hold a meeting on May 20 with the mid-level management of factories, IT personnel and human resource professionals to brief them on its necessity.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">“On that day, we will inaugurate a programme at BGMEA Bhaban for creating the database of RMG units in Dhaka,” he added.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/bgmea-to-make-database-in-3-months/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/bgmea-to-make-database-in-3-months/</span></a></div>
Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-8045943018214392802013-05-31T01:38:00.005+06:002013-05-31T01:38:44.813+06:001700 RMG makers submit designs of their factories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Some 1700 apparel manufacturers submitted structural designs of their respective factory buildings until Thursday, the last day set in this regard.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Of the total designs, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) received about 1200 while Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) got around 550.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Many of the garment makers have appealed to the BGMEA and BKMEA for extension of the timeframe, sources said.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Earlier on April 27, both the apparel apex bodies set May 30, 2013 as the deadline for submission of the reports containing structural designs, building layout, soil test reports and the load bearing capacity of the buildings.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The move has been taken to assess the safety standards of apparel units across the country following the Rana Plaza collapse which housed five garment factories at Savar. The building collapse claimed lives of over 1100 RMG workers.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">"So far 1200 BGMEA members have submitted structural designs of their factory buildings," Md Shahidullah Azim, vice president of the apex body told the FE Thursday.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Terming the response 'very good', he said many factory owners have sought more time as they are yet to get the necessary documents.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Some have got the soil test reports while they are yet to get the building designs as those are located in shared buildings or converted ones, he explained.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">BKMEA vice president Md Hatem said the association got reports from 550 factories so far out of 1000.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">According to BGMEA, its listed factories are 5500, while about 3200 are running and nearly 2000 factories take utilisation declaration (UD) from the association.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The BGMEA leader said they will sit to decide whether the apex body would extend the timeframe following the appeal from the owners.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">"We, the board members will sit and then decide what to do in respect of time extension," Mr Azim said.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Both the BGMEA and BKMEA leaders said they would review the structural designs by experts and take necessary steps as per their recommendations.</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Earlier last month, BGMEA and BKMEA in a joint press conference announced that they would suspend membership of the factories and stop other services to them, if they fail to submit reports on their buildings to the association within the deadline</span><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffe3bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">"We'll re-examine the reports and if we find any deviation, we'll suspend their membership and also stop providing any service to them," BGMEA vice president SM Mannan Kochi had said at the press conference.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMDVfMzFfMTNfMV84OV8xNzExNzU="><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMDVfMzFfMTNfMV84OV8xNzExNzU=</span></a></div>
Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-67876442727977251752013-05-31T01:34:00.004+06:002013-05-31T01:34:27.052+06:00Dov Charney Thinks Retailers Involved in Bangladesh Tragedies ‘Need Their Asses Handed to Them’<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We never thought we’d say this, but it’s a<a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/03/dov-charney-made-2-million-in-2012-is-it-too-much/" style="color: #398dce;">pretty good time to be the CEO of American Apparel</a>. As just about every mass-manufacturing apparel company we can think of comes under fire for contributing to the poor working conditions that lead to multiple deadly disasters in Bangladesh factories, one company (which often <a href="http://fashionista.com/2011/12/american-apparels-dov-charney-addresses-sexual-harassment-accusations-what-led-the-company-to-near-bankruptcy-and-their-plan-to-get-back-on-track-financially/" style="color: #398dce;">comes under fire</a> for<a href="http://fashionista.com/2012/12/dov-charney-is-being-sued-for-choking-an-american-apparel-employee/" style="color: #398dce;">other reasons</a>) is free from blame: American Apparel, which is just about the only large-scale affordable clothing company that manufactures everything in the U.S and offers some of the best working conditions in the apparel industry.</div>
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At the same time, the company isn’t perfect: AA and its founder and CEO Dov Charney have been <a href="http://fashionista.com/2012/03/retail-analysts-say-american-apparel-might-still-be-screwed/" style="color: #398dce;">in a financial hole</a> for years. And, you know, Charney may be a total perv.</div>
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Still, he’s been in the manufacturing and retail field for decades, and, before founding American Apparel, he worked at less socially responsible companies. In a podcast interview with Reihan Salam for <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/the-vice-podcast-show-dov-charney-on-reforming-the-global-garment-industry" style="color: #398dce;" target="_blank"><em>Vice</em></a> yesterday, Charney (likely pleased that, for once, his company wasn’t in the wrong) sounded off on his outsourcing fast fashion competitors.</div>
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He says repeatedly that CEOs of these companies–”some of the richest men in Europe”–should be able to pay workers at least two dollars an hour (as opposed to the current average of 20 cents) and that if they can’t, then they shouldn’t be making clothes.</div>
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Charney makes the case for international garment industry reform, calling for an international minimum wage and mechanisms that allow for factories to be granted extensions when necessary.</div>
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By comparison, American Apparel does sound like a pretty great company–Charney’s seamstresses are paid at least minimum wage in a non-sweatshop environment, and he has the luxury of knowing exactly where, how and by whom his products are produced. He says one of his main goals is to make American Apparel just as financially successful as those fast fashion competitors without sacrificing that, making the argument that retailers like H&M run a “reputational risk” by selling “sexy” swimsuits that are made “in a slave like-setting.”</div>
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“I think these retailers need their asses handed to them!” he says. He also suggests that 1,100 deaths should be enough of a wake up call that “the CEOs at the top 50 apparel companies should be coming together and having a talk about it.”</div>
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He continues,</div>
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I mean only 3000 people got hit in the World Trade Center and we talk about it every day in the United States…this is a September 11th, I think, for the apparel industry and for the working people…</div>
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Charney also makes it sound like, financially, America Apparel is <a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/03/its-a-miracle-american-apparel-actually-turned-a-profit-last-quarter/" style="color: #398dce;">on the upswing</a>, noting “positive cash flow” and that all the company needs to do to become a “multiple billion dollar” company is to generate an additional $1,000 per day out of every store and double its e-commerce business. “I’ll be able to say, boom, we did it, without leveraging art, design, technology, <a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/04/american-apparel-fires-back-at-british-advertising-standards-authority-over-banned-overtly-sexual-ads/" style="color: #398dce;">marketing</a>, what have you.”</div>
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We’re not sure American Apparel is quite as clean as Charney is making it sound, but it is undeniably in a pretty good position if consumers become more reluctant to support companies that have become associated with Bangladesh (even if many of them are <a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/05/hm-zara-make-commitment-to-safety-reform-in-bangladesh/" style="color: #398dce;">now trying to help</a> with labor reform there).</div>
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It will be interesting to see if and how Charney continues to leverage that position and how it could benefit the company financially going forward.</div>
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You can watch the full interview below.</div>
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<a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/05/dov-charney-thinks-retailers-involved-in-bangladesh-tragedies-need-their-asses-handed-to-them/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://fashionista.com/2013/05/dov-charney-thinks-retailers-involved-in-bangladesh-tragedies-need-their-asses-handed-to-them/</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-14716589888083982932013-05-31T01:30:00.003+06:002013-05-31T01:30:29.139+06:00Beijing visa-free tourists allowed to retrieve prohibited goods<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Beijing relaxed its 72-hour visa-free transit policy on Wednesday by allowing tourists traveling under this arrangement to claim back prohibited-entry goods upon leaving the capital.</div>
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Goods including pets and food are prohibited from entering Beijing, although they can be stored upon arrival. Travelers are allowed to apply to retrieve them upon departure, although this did not previously apply to those taking advantage of the 72-hour visa-free transit policy.</div>
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In announcing the move, a spokesman for the Beijing Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau clarified that some fresh foods that are not easy to preserve would not be returned.</div>
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To prevent infectious disease or animal and plant disease from entering the country, the bureau also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development on Wednesday.</div>
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The two government organs will report overseas epidemic situations to each other so as to prevent the entry and spread of infectious viruses.</div>
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<a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-05/29/c_132417475.htm"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-05/29/c_132417475.htm</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-35337385624657090052013-05-31T01:22:00.003+06:002013-05-31T01:22:54.549+06:00Pressure Increases on the U.S. to Revoke Bangladesh’s Trade Status<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">WASHINGTON — After several deadly factory disasters in Bangladesh — including the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/13/us-bangladesh-building-idUSBRE94C0BL20130513" style="color: #666699;" title="Reuters report.">collapse</a> of an eight-story garment factory last month that left at least 1,127 people dead, labor advocates are stepping up pressure on the Obama administration, calling for it to convey its disapproval of working conditions in the country by revoking its special trade status.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But federal officials remain conflicted over the American government's responsibilty for safer labor conditions overseas, and in meetings in recent weeks they disagreed over what combination of carrots and sticks would work best to achieve this goal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Some officials, particularly in the State Department, say that if trade status is revoked, Washington will lose its leverage to pressure Bangladesh to improve building codes and labor rights. Labor advocates and officials from the Labor Department counter, however, that this leverage is lost anyway if the administration is never willing to use it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“By failing to take serious action before now even in the face of phenomenal, unprecedented death of workers, U.S. trade officials have already sent the wrong message to Bangladesh,” said Brian Campbell, policy and legal programs director of the International Labor Rights Forum, a workers advocacy group. “It’s time to send a strong signal.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bangladesh is among more than 125 countries that receive breaks on United States tariffs under a World Trade Organization program known as the Generalized System of Preferences, intended to promote economic growth around the globe. The United States trade representative is scheduled to decide the fate of the country’s trade status in June.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In meetings this month to discuss the disasters, officials from the State Department and the Labor Department agreed that Bangladesh had failed to improve labor rights sufficiently but they disagreed over what to do about it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Some State Department officials argued that taking away Bangladesh’s preferential trade status would damage diplomatic relations with a country that has faced repeated Islamist threats and hurt its economy, which has lately averaged trade-fueled growth of about 6 percent a year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bangladesh’s garment industry does not enjoy duty-free status but State Department officials said that a decision by the Obama administration to scale back benefits might prompt foreign brands to reduce orders from the country. It might also lead the European Union, which does exempt the garment industry from tariffs, to revoke this status. The European Union buys more than $12 billion in Bangladeshi garments each year, or roughly three-fifths of the country’s production.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But Labor Department officials argued that more pressure was urgently needed. In December, American officials gave the Bangladeshi government a list of areas requiring improvement in order for the country to avoid losing its status. But there has been minimal progress, officials said. The list called for an end to government harassment of labor organizers and greater rights for workers in the country’s special export processing zones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">During these meetings, American trade officials also pointed out that under the trade agreement they are required to certify that countries receiving trade privileges meet certain eligibility standards, including the protection of internationally recognized worker rights, which are widely ignored in Bangladesh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Federal labor officials also said that the administration should publicly apply pressure on American retailers like the Gap and Walmart to sign an international accord providing for a binding inspection program and mandatory improvements in workplace safety, according to officials who participated in the meetings but are not authorized to speak to reporters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Many major European retailers have signed the international accord but most American retailers have cited liability concerns, opting instead to conduct their own audits of factory conditions. Eight Democratic senators wrote on May 16 to retailers including Walmart, Target and Kohl’s, arguing that this type of self-monitoring has proved to be ineffective and urging these companies to reconsider signing the accord.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The State Department declined to answer specific questions about the trade status. But in a written statement, Patrick Ventrell, the acting deputy spokesman, said that his office continued to convey its hope directly to the Bangladeshi government that it would “take additional steps to improve worker rights, including the right to freely associate and engage in collective bargaining.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In a letter sent to members of Congress this month, Dan Mozena, the American ambassador to Bangladesh, argued that good relations with Bangladesh were vital to regional security and United States strategic interests and that labor conditions were already improving.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Earlier this year, the Bangladeshi government emphasized the same point in meetings with American trade officials.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“Compliance with rights, including labor rights, will necessarily be gradual” in poor countries, the top civil servant in Bangladesh’s Commerce Ministry said during a March hearing held by the United States trade representative’s office.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bangladesh’s roughly $19 billion garment sector employs nearly four million workers, most of them women, and it sells more than $4.5 billion worth of those goods to the United States each year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">American trade officials say their frustration was growing even before the recent disasters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“This has been a long process of one step forward, two steps backwards,” said an official from the United States trade representative’s office, who was not authorized to speak on the record. The official added that Bangladesh had its trade status reviewed previously in 1990 and 1999 for many of the same labor violations that remain problems now. The trade status was not revoked because the Bangladeshi government made commitments to improve, the official said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In 2007, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. petitioned the United States trade representative to take a tougher posture toward the Bangladeshi government by revoking the country’s trade benefits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“If the country improves and enforces its own laws, real change can happen for these workers,” said Cathy Feingold, international director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One of the biggest concerns among American officials has been the treatment of Bangladeshi labor activists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last April, Aminul Islam, a prominent worker advocate, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/world/asia/bangladeshi-labor-organizer-is-found-killed.html" style="color: #666699;" title="Times article.">was found dead</a>, his body bearing signs of torture. Reporters in Bangladesh said there was evidence that the government’s security forces might have been tied to the death. No one has yet been arrested in relation to the death. According to American diplomats and labor officials, there has been little progress in the investigation.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/business/us-pressure-rises-to-end-bangladesh-trade-status.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1369940669-QIlPqdze0YDqoQzvG8YaGQ"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/business/us-pressure-rises-to-end-bangladesh-trade-status.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1369940669-QIlPqdze0YDqoQzvG8YaGQ</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-53720049603250742122013-05-31T01:20:00.002+06:002013-05-31T01:20:44.527+06:00Gap, Wal-Mart Working on Another Competing Bangladesh Safety Reform Plan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="" class="" height="213" src="http://fashionista.com/uploads/2013/05/167503966-300x213.jpg" style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" title="Activists Call On Gap To Improve Safety Conditions Its Factories" width="300" /><a class="pin-it-button" count-layout="horizontal" href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http://fashionista.com/2013/05/gap-wal-mart-working-on-another-competing-bangladesh-safety-reform-plan/&media=http://fashionista.com/uploads/2013/05/167503966.jpg&description=Gap,%20Wal-Mart%20Working%20on%20Another%20Competing%20Bangladesh%20Safety%20Reform%20Plan" style="color: #398dce; left: 5px; opacity: 0.5; position: absolute !important; top: 5px; z-index: 2;" target="_blank"><img border="0" class="pinit-img" src="http://assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" title="Pin It" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 5px; padding: 0px;">
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If you can’t join them…beat them?</div>
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That seems to be Wal-Mart and Gap’s ethos when it comes to safety reform in Bangladesh. The <a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/05/wal-mart-gap-and-topshop-fail-to-sign-bangladesh-safety-agreement/" style="color: #398dce;" target="_blank">two retailers declined to sign the Bangladesh Safety Accord</a>, which 40 other retailers have already joined, last week–and today, they announced they’ll be pursuing their own, independent safety reform plan, <em><a href="http://www.wwd.com/business-news/government-trade/wal-mart-gap-unite-on-bangladesh-accord-6960816?src=nl/newsAlert/20130530-1" style="color: #398dce;" target="_blank">WWD</a></em> is reporting.</div>
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The two retailers are working together to develop a new fire and safety action plan over the next 30 days, which they hope other retailers will sign onto. They met with a coalition of companies yesterday and will be in Washington today to discuss the best way of addressing the safety issues in Bangladesh.</div>
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U.S. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell and former Sen. Olympic Snowe were asked to serve as “independent facilitators” to the discussions.</div>
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“Retailers approached us and asked us to facilitate an independent forum to discuss how to create an effective, unified safety plan in response to the recent tragedies in Bangladesh,” Mitchell said in the draft release. “The purpose of these meetings will be for the Alliance to agree upon and establish a framework to effectively address the systemic safety issues and improve working conditions within the Bangladeshi garment industry.”</div>
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That framework probably won’t be of a legally-binding nature, since that’s what <a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/05/wal-mart-gap-and-topshop-fail-to-sign-bangladesh-safety-agreement/" style="color: #398dce;" target="_blank">Gap objected to in the Bangladesh safety accord</a>. While Gap and Wal-Mart are no doubt trying to quell consumer backlash, it will likely backfire if this new plan doesn’t place enough legal responsibility on retailers’ shoulders.</div>
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“There is a serious gap in Gap’s credibility if it says that it only wants to sign the agreement if it is not legally binding,” Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Executive Director of corporate watchdog SumOfUs.org, said.</div>
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The new initiative also means there are now <em>three</em> safety reform plans in the works. The Bangladesh Safety Accord, announced first, has the most number of retailers involved with 40 signatures–though they are almost exclusively European companies. Earlier this month, <a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/05/wal-mart-gap-and-topshop-fail-to-sign-bangladesh-safety-agreement/" style="color: #398dce;" target="_blank">the newly-created North American Bangladesh Worker Safety Working Group unveiled its own initiative</a>, which is not legally-binding. And now these two initiatives have Gap and Wal-Mart’s plan to contend with.</div>
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While it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have different plans to address different retailers’ needs, we can’t help but think they’d accomplish more together. Then they could be using this time to <em>actually</em> effect change in Bangladesh–instead of coming up with competing plans with one another.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/05/gap-wal-mart-working-on-another-competing-bangladesh-safety-reform-plan/" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.6em;">http://fashionista.com/2013/05/gap-wal-mart-working-on-another-competing-bangladesh-safety-reform-plan/</a></span></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-85831713758043071492013-05-31T01:18:00.001+06:002013-05-31T01:18:17.679+06:00H&M CEO Talks Bangladesh Safety Reform, Using ‘Too Skinny’ Models<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="" class="" height="450" src="http://fashionista.com/uploads/2013/05/104732948-300x450.jpg" style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" title="'H&M Champs Elysees' Designed By Jean Nouvel Paris Flagship Opening - Red Carpet - Paris PFW Spring/Summer 2011" width="300" /><a class="pin-it-button" count-layout="horizontal" href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http://fashionista.com/2013/05/hm-ceo-talks-bangladesh-safety-reform-using-too-skinny-models/&media=http://fashionista.com/uploads/2013/05/104732948.jpg&description=H&M%20CEO%20Talks%20Bangladesh%20Safety%20Reform,%20Using%20%E2%80%98Too%20Skinny%E2%80%99%20Models" style="color: #398dce; left: 5px; opacity: 0.5; position: absolute !important; top: 5px; z-index: 2;" target="_blank"><img border="0" class="pinit-img" src="http://assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" title="Pin It" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 5px; padding: 0px;">
H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson (Getty)</div>
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In the past year–and, especially these last few months in the wake of the <a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/04/a-call-to-action-following-the-garment-factory-collapse-in-bangladesh-ours-is-a-hand-me-down-world/" style="color: #398dce;">recent Bangladesh factory tragedies</a>–fast fashion retailers have been facing immense pressure from consumer and labor groups to become more socially and environmentally responsible.</div>
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So <a href="http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/news/national/2013/05/28/hm-ceo-karl-johan-persson-on-anorexic-models-bangladeshi-factory-workers/" style="color: #398dce;" target="_blank"><em>Metro</em> caught up</a> with H&M CEO Karl Johan Persson to ask him all the hard questions about the brand’s business practices–and whether it was about factories in Bangladesh or overly-skinny models, Persson didn’t shy away from giving the honest answers.</div>
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Persson made clear that, <a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/05/hm-zara-make-commitment-to-safety-reform-in-bangladesh/" style="color: #398dce;">while H&M signed the Bangladesh Accord</a>, they did not use the factories involved in the tragedies. He added that H&M has its own system in place to ensure worker safety: 100 full-time inspectors who make regular visits, both announced and unannounced, to H&M factories.</div>
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And he wants you to know that buying more expensive clothes isn’t a guarantee that they’re produced responsibly.</div>
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“[It]’s a common misperception that cheap brands use certain manufacturers and expensive brands use others,” Persson said. “We’re one of 30-40 companies buying from many of our suppliers. There are apparel companies that charge their customers low prices, medium prices, and high prices. The workers’ pay is the same regardless of which company is buying.”</div>
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The ideal in Persson’s mind? Special tags for clothes made in responsible factories. “Then you’d remove many of these misperceptions that low store prices mean bad conditions for the factory workers or poor sustainability work.”</div>
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According to the CEO, it would be “complete chaos” if H&M attempted to pay the factory workers making H&M clothes more than the others in the same factory; they are working with the government on finding a solution that works for everyone. In fact, Persson says that H&M has convinced the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to raise the minimum wage there–twice.</div>
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Persson also tackled the issue of underweight models–something that’s been a hot topic since <a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/05/julia-nobis-too-thin-to-cover-tm-deborah-needleman-doesnt-think-so/" style="color: #398dce;">Julia Nobis covered <em>T</em> magazine</a>. He says that, as a large company with omni-present advertising, H&M has a serious responsibility to reflect the diversity of their customer base. Persson says he doesn’t think they’ve “always been good,” and admits that “some of the models we’ve had have been too skinny.”</div>
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However, he does note that they actively seek out a diverse group of models, including women of different ethnicities <em>and</em> weight.</div>
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“I believe that the models in our advertising should look sound and healthy,” Persson added. “There are models who’re too thin or obviously underweight, but there are also those who’re just thin, and they’re the ones we should keep working with, as long as they look sound and healthy.”</div>
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Ultimately, Persson’s goal is for H&M to be as socially-conscious as possible. “I want to feel proud today and when I leave H&M and look back at what we’ve done,” he says.</div>
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“I want to feel that we were the just company regarding our social responsibilities: caring about the environment, choice of models, social issues.”</div>
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<a href="http://fashionista.com/2013/05/hm-ceo-talks-bangladesh-safety-reform-using-too-skinny-models/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://fashionista.com/2013/05/hm-ceo-talks-bangladesh-safety-reform-using-too-skinny-models/</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-7403494082182485432013-05-31T01:14:00.004+06:002013-05-31T01:14:31.437+06:00Could Indonesia's garment industry guide Bangladesh?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Indonesia has reformed its clothing industry since the sweatshop-plagued 1990s, and may offer a model for Bangladesh to improving labor standards while also remaining competitive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22px;">While much of the world was </span><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0529/In-Bangladesh-factory-aftermath-US-and-European-firms-take-different-paths" style="background-color: white; color: #205d87; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reacting to the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22px;"> in Bangladesh, another clothes-making country, Indonesia, was gripped by its own labor nightmare – the discovery of a kitchenware factory that had held dozens of employees locked in small rooms and deprived them of pay for months.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The case was an extreme example of abuse, but workers'-rights groups say it revealed how even countries that have made progress on improving labor standards are under pressure to cut costs and remain competitive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A mix of government support and binding agreements between unions and foreign companies have helped give Indonesian workers a voice and improved health and safety, say activists, meaning workers here are more concerned with salaries than ceiling collapses. "We're much better than Bangladesh in many ways; we have one of the best minimum wages in Asia, and we're relatively free to form trade unions," says Surya Tjandra, a labor laws expert at Jakarta's Atma Jaya University.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Like much of Asia, Indonesia built its garment industry on the back of a large pool of low-cost labor, starting in the 1970s. But factory conditions have improved since the sweatshop-plagued 1990s. And after Indonesia's autocratic leader Suharto stepped down 15 years ago, ushering in democracy, labor reforms accelerated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Former President Megawati Sukarnoputri supported several worker-friendly laws, including a 2003 law that mandates high severance payments. In the past year, minimum wages shot up by as much as 40 percent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Indonesia's unions also have grown noisy, frequently taking to the streets to protest low wages and other grievances. They've had some success, but still face challenges organizing. Government officials worry that disruptive protests, which occasionally result in violence, could drive away foreign investors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">That's why big-name brands have a critical role to play in improving factory conditions, say labor activists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">They point to a freedom of association protocol [FOAP] signed in June 2011 by trade unions, supplier factories, and six international sportswear brands – including Adidas, Nike, and Puma – which helps ensure that workers can organize in factories to push for better pay and working conditions. It's the first such accord worldwide to involve commitments between local labor groups and suppliers and global retailers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">After the accord was signed, a factory making goods for Nike agreed to pay more than $1 million in unpaid overtime to nearly 4,500 workers as part of a settlement with a local union. In April, a supplier for Adidas came to a similar compensation agreement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">An agreement with six companies may be small when compared with the new accord on fire and building safety in Bangladesh signed by dozens of companies. But the six represent the bulk of the global athletic footwear market, which means they have an important role to play in setting industry standards, says Jeroen Merk, a policy coordinator at the Clean Clothes Campaign, one of the organizations that advocated for the protocol.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Accords like the FOAP are important, says Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a labor-monitoring group, because they are binding agreements "that speak to the obligations of factory owners and the brands and retailers."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Implementation however, remains a challenge. Factories still prevent workers from carrying out union activities; the law allows unions to form but does not set out specific rights that allow them to function. "There have been huge problems with workers being robbed of severance pay," Mr. Nova says, "and while the minimum wage is substantially higher due largely to massive worker protests, it's still a poverty wage."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The minimum wage, set by local governments, ranges from $80 to $160 a month, compared with $37 in Bangladesh and $75 in Cambodia. Indonesia is the world's 12th-largest exporter of textile products, accounting for roughly 1.8 percent of global demand. In recent years it has lost market share to Vietnam and Cambodia, but its relatively better working conditions could start to draw more orders from foreign retailers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"We're well proven in quality and delivery times," says Ade Sudrajat, the chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association, adding that factories also comply with buyers' codes of conduct on health and safety, which most major retailers have drafted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Nike was one of the first companies to create codes governing the conditions at its supplier factories following a series of public scandals in the 1990s that partly involved unpaid workers in Indonesia.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2013/0529/Could-Indonesia-s-garment-industry-guide-Bangladesh"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2013/0529/Could-Indonesia-s-garment-industry-guide-Bangladesh</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7835747563251167540.post-58051894642488717162013-05-31T01:12:00.000+06:002013-05-31T01:12:06.481+06:00Inditex, PVH and N Brown Agree to Join Bangladesh Accord<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">DHAKA, Bangladesh <b style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">— </b></b>Inditex SA, Calvin Klein-owner PVH Corp., U.K. clothier N Brown Group Plc and three other companies will team up with union members to oversee the implementation of the Bangladesh fire and building safety accord.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A representative from each of the companies will work with six members from the IndustriAll union for garment workers, the UNI global union representing retail workers and two non- governmental organizations, IndustriAll general secratary Jyrki Raina said. A separate steering committee to oversee governance, transparency and disputes is still to be decided.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">More than 40 companies have now signed the accord, which commits to improving worker safety at Bangladesh’s 5,000 garment factories. The deal requires signatories, including the two largest clothing retailers, Hennes & Mauritz AB and Zara-owner Inditex, to continue orders with suppliers for two years while also potentially funding factory upgrades.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The so-called design committee, which will meet June 3, has until July 8 to hire the safety inspector to lead factory inspections, work on training coordinators and to identify high-risk facilities. It will also look at how the signatories set up the steering committee and how they elect their representatives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“There is a clear will and mechanism for rapid implementation,” Raina said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Other members of the design committee include Otto Group, a German online retailer, European clothing chain C&A, and hard- discounter Aldi.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A separate delegation of union officials arrived in Dhaka May 26 to meet with government officials, unions and employers group the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to agree on how the pact will work, Raina added.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/05/inditex-pvh-and-n-brown-agree-to-join-bangladesh-accord.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/05/inditex-pvh-and-n-brown-agree-to-join-bangladesh-accord.html</span></a></div>
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Masoudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11721822072551102005noreply@blogger.com