BATEXPO 2013, the country's largest garments export fair, kicked off on Thursday.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the annual three-day expo, hosted by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, at Sonargaon Hotel.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged garment owners, manufacturers and workers to work together to protect the garment sector from the conspiracy, report agencies.
"Garment owners and workers have to maintain good relations. You have to look into the advantage and disadvantages of each others. The government is always ready to provide you all necessary support," she said Thursday.
Inaugurating this year's Bangladesh Textile Exposition (Batexpo-2013), the PM also assured the garment owners of considering their demands for reducing the Fee on Board (FOB), bank interest rate and provide tax facility for the industries in new garment village in Munshiganj.
Hasina said her government has started to set up garment village on 531 acres of land at Baushia in Munshiganj and the plots will be handed over to the entrepreneurs in phases.
She said newly constituted wage board for wage hike of the garment workers is working. She expressed the hope that the wage board will be able to announce a wage structure soon to be acceptable to both the owners and workers.
She also said usually the wage board for workers are constituted in every five years. But the government has constituted new wage board in only three years to provide more facilities to the garment workers.
Minister for Textiles and Jute Abdul Latif Siddiqui, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Commerce Minister Ghulam Mohammad Qader, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Faruk Khan, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan attended the function as the special guests at a city hotel.
BGMEA president and chairman of Batexpo organising committee Atiqul Islam, second vice president of BGMEA MA Mannan Kochi and acting first vice president of BGMEA Abdul Wahab, spoke, among others, on the occasion.
The PM also distributed Frontier Award and Young Entrepreneurs Awards among BGMEA members for their success in different categories including business promotion, compliance and promotion of women entrepreneurship.
She also handed over awards to different individuals for performing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and service for development of the garment sector and welfare of the workers.
The Batexpo, organised by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), gives the buyers, investors, partners and visitors from home and abroad the opportunity to have an idea about wide range of apparels and textiles produced by Bangladesh and provides atmosphere to local manufacturers to build lasting trade relations with international buyers.
The PM said a vested quarter is out to create obstacle on development of women. In many pleas they want to disrupt the progress of the garment sector. The government, workers and owners of the industries should remain united to foil their evil design and enhance productivity.
Pointing out the recent occurrences in the country's garment industries, she said, industrial accident is one of the big challenges for industries across the world. There is no alternative to taking preventive measures to face the challenge and keep the losses at lowest level.
She urged the garment manufacturers to be sincere in applying modern technology to improve quality and production management to the highest level.
Sheikh Hasina said labour intensive garment sector is very important to our economy. The industry has empowered our rural women, reduced poverty, contributed to improve woman and child health and created scope for education of their kids.
She said the Awami League government in its first spell in 1996, made the provision of stairs compulsory in all garment factories. The factories have build up their own firefighting capacity. Side by side, the Fire Service and Civil Defence has been strengthened across the country with many new and modern acquisitions.
Turning to the responsibilities of the factory owners, the PM said the owners must think about their workers. "If you wear one or two suit or tie less, it won't bring any harm for you. But if your workers can eat properly then they'll work with dedication for your factory and it will bring good for you also."
She underscored the need to turn Bangladesh into the number one readymade garment exporting country by 2021 taking short-, mid- and long- term plans.
Hasina said new markets should be explored along with setting up of forward and backward linkage industries to this end.
The PM paid her rich tributes to the garment workers who died in many fire and building collapse incidents across the country including the Rana Plaza collapse and conveyed her sympathy to the injured workers and prayed for their early recovery
