The RMG Industry of Bangladesh: A story of Triumph

There are many people who haven’t yet visited Bangladesh but felt its warmth by the virtue of world-class apparel made by the country. Garments with “Made in Bangladesh” tag reach people of all ages in more than 150 countries, essentially providing with their second skin, keeping them warm during winter, comfortable in summer and trendy in autumn. Heritage, culture, tradition all have significant influence over Bangladesh becoming a hub of world-class apparel manufacturing and preferred destination to buyers across the globe. A dive into history will show how garment making had a special place in the lives of people Bangladesh and their ancestors long ago.

The amusing history of Indian Subcontinent’s drapery heritage dates back all the way to 1st Century AD. Over the years, the people of Bengal has embedded and expressed their passion and emission through its heritage and culture. During 16th and 17th century, one of the finest fabric of Bengal, Muslin was sought after by royalty across the globe and international trade of Muslin generated massive amount of revenue. Muslin is now documented as a Geographical Indication (GI) product of Bangladesh, sharing the stage with Jamdani. It was handwoven from uncommonly delicate handspun yarn in villages Jangalbaree, Shonagragon, Teetbari, Dhamrai, Bajitpur area near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Later, one of the finest varieties of Muslin and the most artistic creation of Bangladeshi weavers flourished as DhakaiJamdani/ Dhakai industry.

Until early sixties, individual tailors made garments as per specifications provided by individual customers who supplied the fabrics. The domestic market for readymade garment, excepting children wears and men's knit underwear (genji) was virtually non-existent in Bangladesh until the sixties. The saga of the apparel industry began back in early 1980s when Bangladesh was struggling to stand upright at a time as the economy of the war-torn country was in shambles. Visionary NuroolQuader Khan planted the seed of this industry which like a banyan tree has become a major shadow and shelter-giver to this country. He envisioned a country with industrial development and sent 130 trainees to South Korea to attend the training program on how to produce readymade garments and with these skilled manpower set up the first export-oriented RMG factory “Desh Garments”. Following his footstep later on the late Akhter Mohammad Musa of Bond Garments, the late Mohammad Reazuddin of Reaz Garments, MdHumayun of Paris Garments, Engineer Mohammad Fazlul Azim of Azim Group, Major (Retd) Abdul Mannan of Sunman Group, M Shamsur Rahman of Stylecraft Limited, the first President of BGMEA, AM Subid Ali of Aristocrat Limited also came forward and established some of the first garment factories in Bangladesh.

Till the end of 1982, there were only 47 garment manufacturing units. The breakthrough occurred in 1984-85, when the number of garment factories increased to 587. The number of RMG factories shot up to around 4756 in FY 2020-21. Bangladesh is now the 2nd largest apparel exporters of the world, proudly holding the position for several years.

The growth of the industry in terms of number of units and employment generation is shown in table - 1 below:

The industry had to withstand storms from time to time. Defying various odds the RMG industry carved a niche in the global apparel market and secured a glorious position as the second largest readymade garment exporter in the world.It is not only contributing to Bangladesh’s economic development but also making a difference to millions of workers employed in the sector in terms of their rights and well-being.From phase-out of the Multi Fibre Arrangement (MFA), child-labour elimination in 1994, tragic building collapse incident of 2013, and now Covid-19; the industry has been time tested.

The development of this industry in meeting compliance issues has been recognized internationally as well. The QIMA (Hong Kong based Quality Control Supply Chain Audits) in their Q2 barometer report of 2020 has ranked Bangladesh 2nd in ethical manufacturing. The parameters to measure the ethical audit include: 1. Hygiene, health and safety, 2. Waste management, 3. Child and young labor, 4. Labor practices, including forced labour, worker representation, disciplinary practices and discrimination, 5. Working hours and wages. This report has indicated the accountability and acceptability of our RMG industry in terms of maintaining ethical issues in overall manufacturing process.

Along with meeting the safety and compliance standards, Bangladesh RMG industry is proactively moving towards green industrialization and environmental sustainability. We are in the leading position in the world in terms of green industrialization. Bangladesh has the highest number of green factories with 145 factories LEED certified by the USGBC, of which 42 are Platinum and 89 Gold rated. Besides, 500 more garment factories are in the process of being LEED certified. Amongst the 100 world's highest rated LEED-certified factories 40 factories originated from Bangladesh. BGMEA has been honored with the “2021 USGBC Leadership Award” for its exemplary leadership in developing Bangladesh as the home of the highest number of green garment factories in the world. BGMEA has also joined the UNFCCC, the German Green Button initiative, and circular fashion project with GFA to attain environmental sustainability at the industry level.