Impact of covid-19

on the ready-made
garments sector of
Bangladesh
Presented by
Nishath Anjum
Id:19141059
Sec:A
RMG sector of Bangladesh

 Largest Industrial sector of Bangladesh

 Bangladesh highly depend on this sector for manufacturing,
employment, foreign reserve, and women empowerment.
 Contributes 11.2% of the GDP
 There are about 4600 RMG factories
 84. 2% of the Country’s total exports
 61%women employment
 4. 1M workers
 36% of manufacturing employment
 Second largest exporter after the People’s Republic of
China
 Primarily export to the European Union (62%)and USA,
Canada (21%)
Current situation of Bangladesh
 Covid-19 virus first identified In December 2019 In wuhan,
china then the virus soon spread throughout the the world. In
Bangladesh the virus was identified on march 08.
 The first death occurred on March 18th.

 On January 30, WHO declared the out as a public health emergency of

International Concern. (PHEIC)

RMG workers and their situation amid Covid-19 :

 RMG workers solely depend on their Wages from factories

 Their average income of BDT 11,632 (male)
 As most of the factories closed as per the Government’s Public
holiday order, the RMG workers were in grave Danger.
 80% of the workers do not have any savings.
 By April 3, 1M RMG workers in Bangladesh lost their jobs
 Many of the workers chose to move to their home districts to
minimise their costs of living in cities.
 They reduced all types of expenses. Food expenditure went down
27%.
Situation of RMG mid level management :
 0.5% of them were working at the factory, 18. 7% Were
working from home , 42.9%were on paid leave.
 The mid-level management staffs confirmed that most of the
factories were running at full capacity Before they were closed
because of the pandemic. The factories also had orders for the
next few Months ranging between two to six months for most
of the factories. A few factories also did Emergency shipment
even during the factory closure, with special arrangements.
Only a handful of Factories were running at below capacity
and did not have enough orders for the next few months.
Buyers of Bangladeshi product and their situation

 Most of the buyers are not responding positively since the Covid-19
outbreak
 50%of buyers cancelled their production which were in process or
already completed.
 Some major buyers decided to stand by their commitment by taking
delivery of the already produced items.
 On the other hand, western retailers have been experiencing
significant drop in Sales due to the outbreak.
 Sales in the UK’s Fashion retail sector are supposed to be
dropping down by 70%since the lockdown which cause retailers to
demise the order
Owners of RMG and their situation

 They faced double edged sword during the Covid-19 situation.

 50%of buyers cancelled their order and 98.1%refused to pay
any attention to the partial of abandoned workers. Again some
buyers proposed discount on their agreed price .
 They faced pressure from workers to pay their salaries with in
due date
 The owners were also Frustrated with the terms and
conditions imposed by the Bangladesh Bank in accessing the
US$588 Million stimulus package to pay the workers.
Way forward for Bangladesh RMG Industry

Ensuring Workers safety

 Factories should ensure the food and housing
facility
 Safe transport from workers’ residence .
 The buyers should effectively monitor
 Buyers should support factories to bear the
additional costs .
 NGO’S and development organisations should focus
on the workers safety.
Proper testing for COVID-19 close to the factories
for workers:
 It is important that workers are regularly cheaked to
see if they are covid-19 positive or not.
 Covid-19 Testing booth should be easily accessible
 Owners Should Invest in setting up this booths.
Long term financial security of the workers

 All wages of the workers must be paid digitally

 There should be a mandatory provision of savings for the workers
For emergency.
Conclusion
 Majority of Bangladesh RMG factories are designed to process
large Quantity orders. But the global apparel fashion industry
is also changing and factories need to Take note of these
changes. Increasing number of people are buying online and
small boutique Online shops are looking for factories that can
supply smaller quantity of products of one Design.
 Bangladesh RMG factories need to transform themselves,
change their production Facility to modular production and
even look at opening up online shops to cater to the
Consumers in the European Union and the USA directly.
THANK YOU