The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Army chief General Moeen U Ahmed yesterday offered all out cooperation to safeguard the 'national asset' and said no one would be allowed to ruin the country's export-earning readymade garment sector.

"RMG is a national asset… no one has the right to spoil it or destroy it… let us stand together to save the sector… Bangladesh Army is beside you," he said addressing as chief guest the closing ceremony of a three-day apparel show at a city hotel.

Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA) organised the BATEXPO-2008 as part of their activities to showcase the RMG products to world buyers.

General Moeen noted that the apparel industry made an ambitious export target of US $25 billion and an additional 2 million jobs in next five years and said the army would help the BGMEA achieve the target. "The government is always in supportive role for the development of the sector and the minimum wage for the RMG workers has been fixed already," said the army chief.

He suggested the RMG factory owners to foster relations with the workers as they (workers) are the partners of the owner. "You have to go ahead along with the workers so the workers feel that they are the owner of a certain factory. And through this process you can avoid attacks from outside the factory," he added. The chief of the army staff mentioned that the contribution of the RMG sector is very much significant in social and financial arena.

"Especially the sector helped women empowerment by employing 80 per cent of total RMG workers," he said.

Narrating various development activities of the government for the well-being of the RMG sector, he said the turnaround time at Chittagong seaport got reduced to less than two days, Chittagong customs went under automation, efficiency in the port increased 40 per cent and the port-use cost came down to 30 per cent.

Regarding the ongoing worldwide recession Moeen U Ahmed said the RMG sector should prepare to face the shock and must make an advance plan how to offset the shock from the financial meltdown.

BGMEA president Anwarul Alam Chowdhury Parvez presided over the closing ceremony where Dr Stefan Frowein, Ambassador and head of delegation of the European Commission to Bangladesh, and James F Moriarty, US Ambassador, were present as special guests.

Stefan Frowein said that the traditional markets for Bangladeshi apparels are now under turmoil due to the sweeping recession.

But he assured the RMG owners that the change in the GSP system, which is knocking at the door, would be development-friendly and the EU would work to promote interests of the LDC countries as it did in the past time.

The US ambassador, James F Moriarty, noted that the world economy is now under an unpredictable situation due to the ongoing recession.

He said Bangladesh might get a shock from this recession in a medium term.

But he viewed that the RMG sector of the country had already proved its competitiveness in the recent years and this time around this sector would prove that again.