USAID will provide $18 million for RMG factory upgrades in Bangladesh, along with the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. A group of 26 North American retailers that are a part of the Alliance and USAID will sign an agreement soon on the funding programme, which would allow the participating local banks to provide low-cost loans for garment factories to improve their structural, electrical and fire safety infrastructure.

The Alliance has already completed preliminary inspections into its member factories in its two years in Bangladesh. Janina Jaruzelski, Mission Director of USAID for Bangladesh, said they would provide funds to help small and medium companies improve their workers’ safety and factory environment adding that they want to see Bangladesh as the leading apparel manufacturer in the world.

James Moriarty, Executive Director of the Alliance stated that the Alliance is making factories safer for millions of workers by making finance more widely available and affordable, and working with factory owners to make the necessary repairs He added that all factories can pass the Alliance's remediation verification visit, though progress is slow and that more than a million workers and security guards have been trained under their fire safety training programme.

Six factories are 100 per cent compliant and another 50-60 will be compliant soon, Moriarty mentioned. He also hopes that all factories would be fully compliant by the end of 2018, when the Alliance’s five-year programme ends.