All factories to remain closed for 14 days from 23 July

All kinds of factories in the country will remain closed from 23 July to 5 August as the government will impose strict lockdown during the time after relaxing restrictions one week due to Eid.

The Cabinet Division today announced that imposed strict lockdown restrictions will be relaxed for a week from 14 July to 23 July to facilitate trades and economic activities centering Eid-ul-Adha. 

A new set of restrictions will be imposed following the relaxation from 23 July to 5 August.

The Cabinet Division has issued a gazette notification on Tuesday in this regard detailing the rules and regulations to be imposed from 23 July.

When asked, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Director Abdullah Hil Rakib, also the managing director of Team Group, said, "We are under pressure to ship winter apparels within July to August. Due to the government's lockdown decision, we don't know what to do at this moment. But we have to comply with the decision." 

"Due to the ongoing lockdown and shipping crisis, the apparel exporters get raw materials after one month of ordering those. For the same reason, we also have requested the buyers to accept the shipments at the end of July, which was supposed to be shipped in May.

"We don't know what will happen if we send May's products in August," he added.

Shovon Islam, managing director of Sparrow Group, said, "Initially we planned to keep the factories closed from July 18 to 27 for Eid. But the government has decided to impose strict lockdown from 23 July to 5 August. Factories are open in all the South Asian countries like India and Vietnam. If we close the factory for such an unplanned period of days, it will be suicidal for delivery and shipment. It will put us back in such an extent that it will take six months to recover as every production and shipment is back to back planned. The cascading ripple effect and the reputation to our customers will be disastrous."

"An alternative which we can propose is a complete lockdown from 20th to 29th and factories re-open on 29th. This way the workers can observe Eid and we can also minimise the impact on production and shipment. Almost all of us have at least 8-9 days of factory closure planned. So, we can manage 20th to 29th lockdown.  I can't see any logic behind 23 July to 5th August shutdown. How will give Salary of July within 7th of August? What will happen to entire supply chain?," he added.