CWEIC hold webinar to support recovery of Textile and Garment Industry

The Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC) hosted a webinar titled, 'CWEIC Sector Webinar: Textiles and the Garment Industry' on Wednesday.

The webinar was held to support the recovery of the Textile and Garment Industry of Commonwealth Countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan from the devastating impact of the pandemic, according to a press release.

Md Siddiqur Rahman, Vice President of FBCCI, and Rubana Huq, President of BGMEA alongside a panel of government and business leaders convened to identify the key issues facing the industry and proposed solutions in the webinar.

Md Siddiqur Rahman as a panellist in the webinar stated, "FBCCI's proactive advocacy since February helped formulate a wise roadmap to recovery for the next three years in a broad gauge of socio-economic agenda."

"Additionally philanthropic initiatives to aid frontliners and marginalized groups & goodwill gestures to multiple governments were taken," he added.

"We pivoted very quickly to making 90 to 100 million face masks. FBCCI also formulated Covid-19 FBCCI Health Advisory Protocols for the Commercial Officers, Industries, and other business sectors to reopen," Md Siddiqur Rahman further said.

Praising the Government's economic interventions, Siddiqur Rahman said, "The government expenditure for money circulation, increasing the banking liquidity, social safety net program were PM's comprehensive financial stimulus package to extensively support businesses, exports, agriculture and informal sector including the marginalized communities."

Regarding the disruption of the supply chain, FBCCI Vice President said, "The disruption was global. As we move forward it is important to work and collaborate together to recover from this unprecedented crisis."

He urged CWEIC to be proactive on the matter, the press release reads.

Highlighting the need for collaboration among the Commonwealth nations utilizing the CWEIC platform, BGMEA President Rubana Huq said, "The initial scenario for Bangladesh was apocalyptic as we were slammed with order cancelations amounting up to $526 million from the UK alone."

"We had 4.1 million workers directly affected by the disruption. But with the PM's intervention through the stimulus package and the resilient community of Bangladesh has helped us recover faster," she added.

Rubana Haque said, "Hardly eight countries of the Commonwealth naturally sourced from Bangladesh. Of that the major total sourcing does not even cross 10 billion, whereas Commonwealth Imports over 51 billion dollars' worth of only apparels from the rest of the world."

"We must acknowledge that all of us have to work together on collaborated competition in contrast to a knee-jerk reaction. We are already in discussion with multiple brands from the UK and we are hoping to see good results soon", she added.