Apparel makers in Bangladesh have expressed reservations about incorporating key information, especially on factory inspection and trader profiles, in the proposed database. They fear their business secrets may leak out. Instead, they want to make public the information on some selective areas in consultation with apparel sector stakeholders and allow limited access to the database. 

Leaders of the country’s apparel sector raised their objection to the idea of making their crucial business information publicly accessible in meetings with foreign buyers and government officials on different occasions. They say if the inspection report of a factory was made public, it may damage the business of a factory, because it might drive away its buyers. They suggest the factory should be given a remediation period and in the event of its failure to attain the required level of improvement within the time frame the inspection report could be made public.

Experts have also backed apparel makers’ views about inclusion of the core business information and inspection reports in the database. They, however, feel all trade union-related information should be made public through inclusion in the database. They also suggested government monitoring of the whole process centrally.