In 2015, readymade garment manufacturers in Bangladesh had to work to restore retailers’ confidence in workplace safety. People across the globe raised questions about readymade garment workers’ rights and safety plus electrical and structural integrity. The sector was able to restore buyers’ confidence through improvement of safety standards over the last few years to ensure a safer workplace.

In 2016, Bangladesh will focus on skills development, efficiency improvement, productivity and use of modern technology to save the environment. Another challenge is to relocate shared building factories to make them fully compliant.

In 2016, the RMG sector expects buyers to come to Bangladesh and place more orders. But manufacturers want better prices since factories have invested a lot on improving safety standards. If buyers do not increase prices, manufacturers say they do not want to hurt their competitive edge and will just say ‘no’.

Meanwhile the industry is preparing to concentrate on product and market diversification along with product upgradation as Vietnam, a major competitor of Bangladesh, is being connected with the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The RMG sector in Bangladesh contributes over 81 per cent to total export earnings and over 10 per cent to GDP. The sector has 40 lakh workers, of which 80 per cent are women, mostly from rural areas.