Improved labour efficiency, policy support needed for environmental compliance

Presently, labour rights compliance on the manufacturing stage is given precedence by world customers, and now they’re expressing issues about many extra points together with environmental and broader social facets of producing.

These issues are not any extra solely targeted on exportable merchandise and these at the moment are concerned with linkage actions. Consciousness in environmental and social compliance would have a visual affect on the complete provide chain in addition to on the macro-economic insurance policies of the exporting international locations.

Whereas these points earlier dominated the European markets, now the USA market can be getting concerned. Certainly, the ideas of compliance and accountability, knowledgeable by the Sustainable Growth Targets (SDGs), have gotten hallmarks of the export markets.

Realising the bottom realities, Bangladesh should put together itself for compliance-driven manufacturing and market practices. Nonetheless, this can entail extra prices of manufacturing and provide.

For the reason that export markets are primarily “patrons’ markets”, the nation has to largely internalise these prices by way of improved labour productiveness, strengthened infrastructural and logistical providers and coverage assist.

Entrepreneurs mustn’t panic and face this problem constructively and competitively, as a step within the incremental progress of our economic system consistent with world traits. Dealing with the problem efficiently would assist Bangladesh to keep away from the so-called middle-income lure.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya

Distinguished Fellow, CPD, and former Bangladesh Ambassador to WTO