Is ‘Greening’ the Key to Sustain in Global Market for Bangladeshi Readymade Garments Industry?

摘要

RMG (Readymade Garments) industry is life-blood for the economy of Bangladesh since she contributes around 82% in the export revenue and 14% in GDP. In the backdrop of ‘Savar Building Collapse’ in 2013, the second most horrifying industrial disaster of all time, the country image of Bangladesh has suffered. As a consequence of which GSP facility was withdrawn. The industry now faces a new set of challenges to sustain in the global market. Vietnam exceeded Bangladesh in apparel export to US, just last year in 2015. Another threat has been developed when Vietnam signed TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) in February, 2016 which would leverage Vietnamese export to US market. There is pressure from US to make RMG in Bangladesh safe and sustainable. Safety pushes the cost equation up but lack of which pulls the image of the country down. Bangladesh RMG enjoys the greatest cost advantage of all the nations due to the lowest wage paid to the workers. With a standing of $25 billion export revenue in RMG, now Bangladesh projects to reach $50 billion in 2021. This paper would look critically into the role of greening in sustainability of the industry, in particular, reaching the 2021 target. The authors would approach critical analysis through exploratory study of academic literature and newspapers.