Bangladesh

Can market forces help prevent tragedies such as Rana Plaza? Not really, say Professors Vinod Singhal and Brian Jacobs as they explain that in terms of sourcing strategy, most firms are going to continue to search for the lowest costs even as the larger idea of responsible sourcing has gained traction following an increase in activists and watchdogs as also the ubiquity of 24/7 news and social media.  

The times they are a changing and Bangladesh continues to adopt advanced apparel manufacturing technology. Undoubtedly, if this country wishes to remain competitive at this critical juncture of its journey, the apparel sector needs to take the lead in innovation, exhorts Abdullah Hil Rakib, Director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

The Rana Plaza disaster of March 2013 exposed many faultlines in the fashion ecosystem. That tectonic day threw up a whole lot of issues that were furiously debated the world over. One critical issue was the seemingly confrontational interface between business and human rights. In this freewheeling conversation, Salil Tripathi, Senior Advisor at the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) and Sanchita Banerjee Saxena, IHRB Research Fellow and Director at the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, talk about the lessons for business and human rights.

The Asian University for Women (AUW) in Bangladesh has launched the School of Apparel and Retail Management to support professional and leadership development of women.

Reports on Bangladesh's ready-made garment industry are mostly about apparel workers, or the country's rising share in apparel exports. There is, however, an underbelly that remains off the radar: the unmitigated pollution of waterbodies. A report from the ground.

A survey conducted by the University of Aberdeen and trade justice charity Transform Trade has said that large fashion brands sourcing clothes from Bangladesh for the UK market are allegedly paying below the cost of production.

The $3 million Dhaka-based Recycle-Raw claims to be the only compliant textile-garment waste-sorting company in Bangladesh and on mission to change the garbage sector into gold.

Recover, a leading manufacturer of low-impact, high-quality recycled cotton fibre and cotton fibre blends, will be setting up Bangladesh's largest recycling plant in association with BEXIMCO.

The Governments of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Viet Nam have joined forces to fight chemical pollution, launching a joint $43-million programme to manage and reduce hazardous chemicals in their textile industries.

Findings from a survey reveal that the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is under attack in major garment producing countries in Asia. texfash.com reports.