GIZ and EU Have Completed Four Years of Their Collaboration

The German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the European Union (EU) have completed four years of their collaboration for improving labour standards in Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) industry.

An event to mark the completion of four years was organized in Dhaka by the ‘Promotion of Social and Environmental Standards in Industry’ (PSES).

PSES project has been commissioned for five years from 2010 to 2015 by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with Bangladesh’s Ministry of Commerce being the leading executing agency. The project is being co-financed by the European Union.

The objective of the project is to increase adherence to national labour and environmental laws and to international standards and guidelines by entrepreneurs in the textile and garment industry of Bangladesh.

Speaking at the event, Bangladesh Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu said the EU has been playing an important role in the development of Bangladesh for over four decades and through the PSES project has played a key role in ensuring the health and safety of workers in the RMG sector.

William Hanna, Head of Delegation of the EU to Bangladesh, said the good work needs to be continued if the positive changes brought about by GIZ-implemented project and of the EU-Bangladesh Sustainability Compact are to become permanent and meaningful.

Since July 2010, PSES along with BGMEA and BKMEA has trained 1,387 social compliance officers, with 304 of them being female. Under the PSES project, over 200,000 workers were trained on labour law and nearly 1,000 disputes were resolved.