The Buyers Forum in Pakistan has agreed to collectively work towards improving working conditions in the factories and influence their supply chains through policy and advocacy and enterprise improvement programs to promote sector growth through better compliance initiatives.

Rick Slettenhaar of the Netherlands Embassy, representing the conveners of the Pakistan Buyers Forum, complimented the participants on the progress made and urged the Forum to focus increasing its footprint in 2016 to attain concrete results. Romina Kochius, representative of GIZ (German Development Agency), delivered a presentation on the key outcomes of the project on the Implementation of Social Standards in Textile Sector in Punjab during a briefing session with the government, diplomatic development partners and other international agencies. She shared that the success of the project is in the social dialogue approach through which workers and employers jointly work towards issues of workplace compliance which has ultimately reduced industrial conflicts and increased overall efficiency and productivity.

According to Caroline Bates, representing labour standards in global supply chains, a program for action in Asia and the garment sector, briefed the participants about the Garment Sector Stakeholders Forum (GSSF) jointly facilitated by the ILO and GIZ. The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Ministries of Textiles and Commerce signalled their continued commitment to make the textile sector in Pakistan sustainable.