Urging the entrepreneurs to remain alert so that the country’s brand image remains untarnished, foreign minister Dipu Moni on Thursday said that better work environment for the garment workers would have to be ensured for the sake of the industry.
She said this at a workers’ welfare programme organised by the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association at its auditorium.
At the programme, Dipu Moni also distributed compensation money among the injured workers of Tazreen Fashions, and education scholarships among meritorious children of the garment workers.
Addressing the programme, the minister hoped that Bangladesh would be the biggest exporter in the RMG sector in the future as the production cost in China had been increasing.
Terming the RMG sector the key player in the country’s economy, she said the sector had played a significant role in poverty alleviation and empowerment of women.
To go forward, the government, the entrepreneurs and the workers would have to work together and only a combined effort can change the living standards of the workers, the minister observed.
The garments village at Gajaria in Munshiganj will be set up within the shortest possible time, she added.
BGMEA president Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said that the welfare programmes organised by the BGMEA for the workers is an exceptional initiative.
If the government provides the needed logistic support, Bangladesh can be the biggest global RMG exporter, he said.
‘The BGMEA hospital at Mirpur in the city will start its operation very soon and we will expand the welfare programmes to improve the workers’ living standards,’ he added.
At the programme, the BGMEA handed over Tk 1 lakh insurance money to the family members of 10 deceased workers and Tk 1 lakh compensation money to 33 workers who had been injured in the Tazreen Fashions blaze on November 24.
The association also distributed education scholarships worth Tk 3,000 each among 100 meritorious children of the garments workers.
BGMEA vice-president Md Siddiqur Rahman and SM Mannan Kochi also spoke on the occasion.