The garment business of Bangladesh has been the key export department and a main source of foreign transfer for the last 25 years. At present, the country generates about billion worth of products each year by exporting garment. The business provides employment to about 3 million workers of whom 90% are women. Two non-market elements have performed a vital function in confirming the garment industry's continual success; these elements are (a) quotas under Multi- Fibre Arrangement1 (Mfa) in the North American market and (b) special market entry to European markets. The whole policy is strongly linked with the trend of relocation of production.
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Displacement of production in the Garment Industry
overview of Bangladesh Garment commerce
The global economy is now controlled by the transfer of production where firms of developed countries swing their concentration to developing countries. The new representation is centred on a core-periphery system of production, with a comparatively small centre of permanent employees dealing with finance, investigate and development, technological institution and modernisation and a periphery containing dependent elements of production procedure. Reducing costs and expanding production are the main causes for this disposition. They have discovered that the simplest way to undercharge is to move production to a country where labour charge and production costs are lower. Since developing nations provide areas that do not levy costs like environmental degeneration, this institution protects the developed countries against the issues of environment and law. The transfer of production to Third World has helped the expansion of economy of these nations and also speed up the economy of the developed nations.
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Garment business is controlled by the transfer of production. The globalisation of garment production started earlier and has expanded more than that of any other factory. The fellowships have transferred their blue-collar production activities from high-wage areas to low-cost manufacturing regions in industrialising countries. The enhancement of communication system and networking has played a key role in this development. Export-oriented manufacturing has brought some good returns to the industrialising nations of Asia and Latin America since the 1960s. The first relocation of garment manufacturing took place from North America and Western Europe to Japan in the 1950s and the early 1960s. But while 1965 and 1983, Japan changed its concentration to more lucrative products like cars, stereos and computers and therefore, 400,000 workers were dismissed by Japanese textile and clothing industry. In impact, the second stock transfer of garment manufacturing was from Japan to the Asian Tigers - South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in 1970s. But the tendency of transfer of manufacturing did not remain there. The rise in labour charge and activeness of trade unions were in proportion to the enhancement in economies of the Asian Tigers. The business witnessed a third transfer of manufacturing from 1980s to 1990s; from the Asian Tigers to other developing countries - Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and China in particular. The 1990s have been led by the final group of exporters together with Bangladesh, Srilanka, Pakistan and Vietnam. But China was leader in the current of the relocation as in less than ten years (after 1980s) China emerged from nowhere to become the world's major maker and exporter of clothing.
Bangladesh Garment Sector and Global Chain
The cause of this transfer can be clarified by the wage structure in the garment industry, all over the world. Apparel labour charge per hour (wages and fringe benefits, Us$) in Usa is 10.12 but it is only 0.30 in Bangladesh. This dissimilarity accelerated the world apparel exports from billion in 1965, with developing nations production up just 14 percent of the total, to 9 billion in 1991, with developing nations contributing 59 percent. In 1991 the estimate of workers in the ready-made garment business of Bangladesh was 582,000 and it grew up to 1,404,000 in 1998. In Usa, however, 1991-figure showed 1,106.0 thousand workers in the apparel sector and in 1998 it turned down to 765. 8 thousand.
The presented data reveals that the tendency of low labour charges is the key imagine for the transfer of garment manufacturing in Bangladesh. The institution initiated in late 1970s when the Asian Tiger nations were in quest of tactics to avoid the export quotas of Western countries. The garment units of Bangladesh are in general relying on the 'tiger' nations for raw materials. Mediators in Asian Tiger nations build an intermediary in the middle of the textile units in their home countries, where the spinning and weaving go on, and the Bangladeshi units where the cloth is cut, sewn, ironed and packed into cartons for export. The same representatives of tiger nations contemplate the market for Bangladesh in any nations of the North. Large retail trading fellowships settled in the United States and Western Europe give most orders for Bangladeshi garment products. fellowships like Marks and Spencers (Uk) and C&A (the Netherlands) control capital funds, in proportion to which the capital of Bangladeshi owners is patience. Shirts artificial in Bangladesh are sold in developed nations for five to ten times their imported price.
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Collaboration of a native hidden garment industry, Desh Company, with a Korean company, Daewoo is an important instance of international garment chain that works as one of the grounds of the expansion of garment business in Bangladesh. Daewoo Corporation of South Korea, as part of its global policies, took interest in Bangladesh when the Chairman, Kim Woo-Choong, offered an aspiring joint venture to the Government of Bangladesh, which included the increase and process of tyre, leather goods, and cement and garment factories. The Desh-Daewoo alliance was decisive in terms of getting into the global apparel markets at critical juncture, when import reforming was going on in this market following the signing of Mfa in 1974. Daewoo, a South Korean important exporter of garments, was in crusade of opportunities in nations, which had hardly used their quotas. Due to the quota restriction for Korea after Mfa, the export of Daewoo became limited. Bangladesh as an Ldc got the chance to export without any constraint and for this cause Daewoo was concerned with the use of Bangladesh for their market. The purpose behind this need was that Bangladesh would rely on Daewoo for importing raw materials and at the same time Daewoo would get the market in Bangladesh. When the Chairman of Daewoo displayed interest in Bangladesh, the country's President put him in touch with chairman of Desh Company, an ex-civil servant who was seeking more entrepreneurial pursuits.
To fulfil this wish, Daewoo signed a collaboration compact with Desh Garment for five years. The compact also incorporated the fields of technical training, purchase of machinery and fabric, plant making ready and marketing in return for a specific marketing commission on all exports by Desh while the compact phase. Daewoo also imparted an exhaustive practical training of Desh employees in the working climate of a multinational company. Daewoo keenly helped Desh in buying machinery and fabrics. Some technicians of Daewoo arrived Bangladesh to design the plant for Desh. The end succeed of the relationship of Desh-Daewoo was important. In the first six years of its business, i.e. 1980/81-86/87, Desh export value increased at an each year median rate of 90%, reaching more than million in 1986/87.
It is claimed that the Desh-Daewoo alliance is a critical element for the increase and achievement of Bangladesh's entire garment export industry. After getting linked with Daewoo's brand names and marketing network, overseas buyers went on with buying garments from the corporation heedless of their origin. Out of the chance trainees most left Desh business at any times to erect their own competitive garment companies, worked as a way of appealing knowledge all through the whole garment sector.
It is critical to identify the outcomes of the process of appealing production from high pay to low pay nations for both developing and developed nations. It is a bare fact that most of the Third World nations are now on the way to industrialisation. In this procedure, workers are working under unfavourable working environment - minimal wages, unhealthy place of work, lack of security, no job guarantee, forced labour etc.
The route of globalisation is full of ups and downs for the developing nations. Relocations of comparatively mobile, blue-collar production from developed to developing nations, in some circumstances, can have troublesome effects on group life if - in the absence of productive planning and talks in the middle of international organisations and the government and/or organisations of the host nation - the transferred operation encourages urban-bound relocation and its span of stay is short. Other negative succeed is that the rise in employment and/or earnings is not foreseen, to be satisfactorily large and thorough to lessen inequality. In relationship with the negative results of relocation of manufacturing on employment in developed countries, we comprehend that in comparatively blue-collar industries, the growing imports from developing nations lead to distinct losses in employment. It is held that improvement of trade with the South was a critical imagine of the disindustrialisation of employment in the North over past few decades.
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After all employees who are constantly working under unfavourable circumstances have to bear the brunt. Work is under-control over the Bangladesh garment sector. Appalling working climate has been brought to light in the Bangladesh garment industry.
A investigate reveals that 90 percent of the garment employees went through illness or disease while the month before the interviews. Headache, anaemia, fever, chest, stomach, eye and ear pain, cough and cold, diarrhoea, dysentery, urinary tract infection and reproductive condition problems were more coarse diseases. The garment factories gave bonus of distinct diseases to the employees for working. With a view to seeing out a link in the middle of these diseases and market threats, condition status of employees has been examined before and after coming in the garment work. At the end of examination, it was come out that about 75 percent of the garment workforce had sound condition before they entered the garment factory. The reasons of condition declines were market threats, unfavourable working environment, and want of staff facilities, inflexible terms and conditions of garment employment, workplace pressure, and low wages. distinct work-related threats and their influence on condition forced employees to leave the job after few months of joining the factory; the median distance of assistance was only 4 years.
The garment sector is disreputable for fires, which are said to have claimed over 200 lives in the past two years, though exact figures are tough to find. A shocking instance of absence of workplace safety was the fire in November 2000, in which almost 50 workers lost their lives in Narsingdi as exist doors were closed.
From the above pathology of working climate of garment sector, we can state that the working environment of most of the Third World nations, particularly Bangladesh remind us of earlier improvement of garment industries in the First World nations. The state of employment in many (not necessarily) textiles and clothing units in the developing nations take us back to those set up in the nineteenth century in Europe and North America. The mistreatment of garment employees in the birth duration of the improvement of Us garment factories reviewed above is more or less same as it seen now in the Bangladesh garment industry. Can we state that garment employees of the Third World nations living in the 21st century? Is it a return of the Sweatshop?
In a way, the Western fellowships are guilty of pitiable working climate in the garment sector. The developed nations want to make more behalf and therefore, force the developing nations to cut down the manufacturing cost. In order to survive in the competition, most of the developing nations select immoral practices. By introducing inflexible terms and conditions in the business, the global economy has left few alternatives for the developing nations.
Right Time to Make a Decision
There are two alternatives to tackle the challenge of the competitive world initiated by the continuous pressure of global garment chain. One can continue to exist in the competition by adopting time-honoured work systems or immoral practices. But it is uncertain how long they can continue to exist. In relationship with the garment business of Bangladesh, we can say that this is the right time to succeed a competitive policy, which improves quality. If the Mfa opportunities are eliminated, will it be feasible to keep the competitiveness through low-wage-female labour or through supplementary drop in female wages? possibly not. Since the labour charges are so minimal that with such wage, a employee is not able to assert even a family of two members. Enhancing the efficiency of female workers is the only explication to increased competition. Permissible education and acceptable training can help perform these distinct results. To rule the global market, Bangladesh has to come out of low wage and low production involved in the garment industry. Bangladesh can improve labour production through constant training, use of upgraded technology and great working environment. Bangladesh should plan a strategy intended for promoting skill development, speeding up technology transfer and Enhancing productivity height of the workers.
Another recipe is to adopt best system or ethical course. Those companies, which react to heightened competition by stressing quality, fast talk of the customers, fair practices for labourers should have the most innovative practices. We think that we are now living in the age of competition in producing improved potential over cost-reduction policy. The objective of change efforts at the workplace has been modified over the time - from production the job humane in the 1960s, to job delight and production in 1970s, to potential and competitiveness in the 1980s. It is critical for a business to pursue a competitive policy that improves quality, flexibility, innovation and customer care. If they rely on low costs by dropping labourers' wages and other services, they will be bereaved of labourers' dedication to work.
Strength
. critical Qualified/keen to learn workforce available at low labour charges. The recommended minimum median wages (which include Travelling Allowance, House Rent, medical Allowance, Maternity Benefit, Festival Bonus and Overtime Benefit) in the units within the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones (Bepz) are given as below; on the other hand, exterior the Bepz the wages are about 40% lower:
. Vigor at low price
. literally accessible infrastructure like sea road, railroad, river and air communication
. Accessibility of fundamental infrastructure, which is about 3 decade old, in general established by the Korean, Taiwanese and Hong Kong Chinese industrialists.
. Fdi is legally permitted
. Moderately open Economy, particularly in the Export Promotion Zones
. Gsp under Eba (Everything But Arms) for Least developed Country applicable (Duty free to Eu)
. Improved Gsp advantages under Regional Cumulative
. seeing send to Duty Free Excess to Us, talks are on, and appear to be on hopeful track
. venture assured under Foreign hidden venture (Promotion and Protection) Act, 1980 which secures all foreign investments in Bangladesh
. Opic's (Overseas hidden venture Corporation, Usa) assurance and finance agendas operable
. Bangladesh is a member of Multilateral venture certify department (Miga) under which safety and safety measures are available
. Adjudication assistance of the International Centre for the community of venture Dispute (Icsid) offered
. Exquisite Tele-communications network of E-mail, Internet, Fax, Isd, Nwd & Cellular services
. Feebleness of currency against dollar and the condition will persist to help exporters
. Bank interest@ 7% for financing exports
. Convenience of duty free institution bonded w/house
. Readiness of new units to improve systems and create infrastructure accordant with goods increase and fast reactions to circumstances
Weakness
. Lack of marketing tactics
. The country is deficient in creativity
. Absence of literally on-hand middle management
. A small estimate of manufacturing methods
. Low acquiescence: there is an international pressure group to force the local producers and the government to implement group acquiescence. The Us Gsp may be cancelled and purchasing from Us & Eu may decrease significantly
. M/c advancement is necessary. The machinery required to compare add on a garment or increase competence are missing in most industries.
. Lack of training organizations for market workers, supervisors and managers.
. Autocratic approach of nearly all the investors
. Fewer process units for textiles and garments
. Sluggish backward or send blending procedure
. Incompetent ports, entry/exit involved and loading/unloading takes much time
. Speed money culture
. Time-consuming institution clearance
. Unreliable dependability concerning Delivery/Qa/Product knowledge
. communication gap created by incomplete knowledge of English
. Branch to natural calamities
Opportunity
. Eu is willing to design business in a big way as an choice to china particularly for knits, together with sweaters
. Bangladesh is included in the Least developed Countries with which Us is committed to improve export trade
. Sweaters are very thrifty even with china and is the expectation for Bangladesh
. If skilled technicians are available to instruct, prearranged garment is an choice because labour and Vigor cost are inexpensive.
. Foundation garments for Ladies for the Fdi promise is critical because both, the technicians and extremely developed machinery are critical for great competence and output
. Japan to be observed, as conventionally they purchase handloom textiles, home furniture and garments. This section can be encouraged and expanded with continued improve in quality
Threat
. The exporters have to put in order themselves to harvest the advantages offered by the opportunities.
