PPE a silver lining for ailing garment industry

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The country's garment industry could benefit from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic due to the soaring demand for several products, said KI Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Garment Buying House (BGBA), yesterday.

Soon after the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China last December, the global demand for personal protective equipment, hospital bed linens, masks and other isolation fabrics rose sharply.

Similarly, the domestic markets also saw a sharp upsurge in demand for these goods. Therefore, garment manufacturers should exploit this possibility to make better business, according to the BGBA president.

"The marketplace size for these goods is currently worth several billion dollars and we can easily grab the forex market as we already can produce those items at our garment factories," Hossain said while addressing a press conference held at the Economic Reporters Forum office in Dhaka.

Besides, local companies further down the supply chain such as spinners, weavers and dye factories, could also greatly benefit if this industry is exploited at home and abroad, he added.

Bangladesh's garment industry has suffered greatly as a result of the novel coronavirus. With governments worldwide declaring nationwide lockdowns to curb the spread of the deadly pathogen, there is a drastic fall in the demand for apparel products.

Buyers from the united states and the EU, two of Bangladesh's biggest export destinations, then began to cancel or hold their orders. Subsequently, local manufacturers and other businesses linked to the industry were hard-pressed to keep their operating expenses with almost zero sales.

However, in response to a query, Hossain said that he's not towards terminating the workers of shopping for houses. About four lakh persons have employment with the 826 buying houses in Bangladesh, he said.

The BGBA president also criticised a few foreign companies, such as for example Debenhams, which laid off all 69 of its staff members at its Bangladesh office.

"I suggest the federal government to investigate how certain foreign buying houses have already been conducting their business here while violating the country's regulations," he said.

There were cases during the past when a foreign buying house suddenly terminated a great number of its skilled workforce before closing its procedures without making any payments to suppliers.

The majority of those suppliers are unable to force the foreign companies to create their payments and so, it is a huge loss for the united states.

However, Hossain urged the authorities concerned never to blacklist any international retailers because of order cancellation since it will merely ruin Bangladesh's 'bright image'.

"Despite the situation, the perfect solution is is not to take off our ties with the retailers with whom we've a warm relationship merely to punish a few bad buyers," he said.

The full total value for cancelled or deferred work orders has amounted to $800million so far.

To greatly help the garment industry survive the coronavirus pandemic, Hossain demanded that the federal government allocate a fairly easy loan service for apparel buying houses from the previously announced Tk 20,000 crore bailout package.

Hossain also urged the federal government to reduce advanced income tax from 10 % to 5 % in the upcoming national budget for fiscal 2020-21.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

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