Thirty years ago, when I first stepped into this trade, things were different. We were all learning the tricks of the trade and we were all learning it the hard way. And of course, there were only a handful of us out there. Three decades later, the country is swarming with factories and is spelling ‘Opportunity’ for every new entrepreneur who wants to step into the RMG scene. The going hasn’t been easy and the challenges have been far too many more than we could ever think of handling. From a phase of commitment of quotas we have transitioned into a season of open frontiers, exposed to the open market situations and aggressive price structures. The business has moved on from relatively cushioned quotes to complicated styles with limited R&D requirements. From a comfortable assurance of steady business, the retailers have adopted a challenging stance of getting the style quotes from all over the world, starting from China to South Africa. And guess what? Bangladesh needs to compete and win the business in the process. The reason is pretty simple. Neither is China nor any other country willing to accept the styles that we do and at a margin that we work with. We have always been a country of die hard entrepreneurs, positioned to achieve the impossible and never saying ‘no’ to any counter offers set by the retailers. It’s always as if we are all in dire straits, all in a rush to grab the bag of gold. But the bag of gold has seldom had gold for us.
We have had global policy challenges in this trade. During my tenure as the BGMEA President, we had engaged lobbyists to gain duty free access to the United States. The process has been continuing yet the fruits of that initiative are yet to materialize. Our products face the same duty structures while countries like Pakistan have “war” benefits for industries in the war stricken zones. GSP with Europe had been an uphill struggle as well. There had to be multiple meetings with Pascal Lamy, the former European Commissioner for Trade, who had always given a patient hearing to our approaches and had granted beneficial status to us in the past. Hopefully, the new GSP rules of origin will usher in more advantages for the entrepreneurs of our country.
Internally, we have had many more hurdles to cross. The labour unrest that has been plaguing our country ever since May 2006 has been a difficult phase to overcome. I remember that particular summer in 2006, when I found myself amidst at least ten thousand protesting laborers in the Export Processing Zone. Talking to them in one breath, getting their points across to my own community as well as convincing my own self of their needs of the hour seemed to be an impossible task at that time. Today, their messages have reached us and hence the pay rise has come into effect from Nov 01, 2010. Yet there are factories being destroyed with every minimal excuse. Yet there are good factories facing closure just because of a fraction of workers or non-workers wanting to go on a rampage in the factory. The road to a safe trade is constantly being marred by agents of provocation. Who benefits from this is yet a question that I grapple with every night. The other thoughts that plague me on a regular basis have a lot to do with our infra structure. The fact that it takes almost ten days to have imports reach our factory is disappointing enough. The fact that there has hardly been any implementation of any policy incentive for the entrepreneurs makes us wonder where and when we (the