Bangladesh needs to address the challenges of energy, skilled human resources and poor infrastructure promptly to reach its target of $50 billion apparel export by the end of 2021. Poor infrastructure is the main challenge to the growth of the country’s exports apart from a shortage of electricity and gas.

A high cost of production, high bank interest rates and lack of trained human resources are some other challenges to achieving the target for 2021. After the fires at Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza building collapse, the cost of production has increased significantly, but retailers still do not pay higher prices for apparel items. Although Accord and Alliance have inspected the factories, they did not approach any retailer to increase the volume of work orders from factories housed in shared buildings.

Both Accord and Alliance will continue inspecting factory buildings till June 2018, but it’s doubtful whether the workplace safety programs will continue after the departure of the agencies. After completing the inspection of more than 1,100 factories, Accord made a recommendation to close 25 factories. It’s felt a mechanism should be adopted by the government and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association to take responsibility for monitoring the factory buildings after the departure of the agencies.