BGMEA President Faruque Hassan and Vice President Miran Ali met with Avedis Seferian, President and CEO of Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) in Washington D.C. in the USA.
Hong Mei, Senior Director, Compliance Assurance and Srishti Sharma, Director of Compliance Administration, WRAP were also present at the meeting while Mark Jaeger, Vice President, Stakeholder Engagement, Aimee Dobrzeniecki, Vice President, Administration joined the discussion virtually.
The BGMEA President discussed matters related to the expansion of Bangladesh’s business interests in the western hemisphere particularly in North America. Their talks also included ways of mutual cooperation and future engagement between BGMEA and WRAP for Bangladesh’s apparel industry.
They also had discussions on how more cooperative and coordinated efforts can be made to better facilitate WRAP certification for garment factories in Bangladesh and enhance the reputation of Bangladesh as a safe and compliant source of apparel sourcing in the world.
During the meeting BGMEA President Faruque Hassan highlighted the progress of Bangladesh’s garment industry in the areas of workplace safety, social and environmental sustainability.
He said the RMG industry of Bangladesh has earned global recognitions for its unprecedented strides over the years in safety, sustainability and social compliance. A recent survey report by Hong Kong based supply chain compliance solutions provider, QIMA, ranked Bangladesh’s garment industry second in “Ethical Manufacturing”. The report covered a wide range of compliance and ethical manufacturing issues including hygiene, health and safety, waste management, worker representation, disciplinary practices and discrimination, working hours and wages etc.
Apart from ensuring workplace safety, Bangladesh is also proud to have the highest number of green garment factories in the world with 145 factories certified as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), by US Green Building Council (USGBC). Among them 42 are LEED platinum-rated and 91 are LEED gold-rated units. 500 more factories are in the pipeline for certification.
BGMEA President Faruque Hassan sought cooperation and support of WRAP President Avedis Seferian to portray the positive picture of Bangladesh apparel industry internationally.
