DHAKA: The government has inspected structural, fire and electrical safety measures of 1,000 ready-made garment (RMG) factories.

A press release by International Labour Organisation (ILO) said a press release on Wednesday.

It said, till now, 2,904 RMG factories have been inspected of which 1,000 fell under the government’s National Initiative under the Tripartite Plan of Action, supported by the ILO with backing from Canada, the Netherlands and the UK.

Rest 1,904 factories were inspected by the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.

However, a total of 604 factories from the original list have remained to be inspected.

Syed Ahmed, Inspector General of the Department of Inspection of Factories and Establishments (DIFE) said, “This is a significant milestone as we seek to create a safer RMG sector for Bangladesh.”

He also said they were making concerted efforts to complete as many inspections as possible by the 31 July deadline.

“After this date, factories will no longer receive inspections for free and will need to meet the costs themselves if they wish to continue exporting,” he added.

Syed Ahmed also said, “The National Initiative is now moving into the factory remediation phase with a pilot programme which sees DIFE inspectors explaining the process of developing Corrective Action Plans to a select number of factories.”

“This will provide useful experience and lessons on the time, skills and resources needed to manage this process before it is fully rolled out to all factories under the National Initiative,” he added.

The release also said, “Inspection of all 1,827 factories under the national initiative has been hampered due to the number of factories having closed, moved or changed contact details.”

DIFE, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) and ILO are underway to create a comprehensive and accurate list of actively exporting RMG factories to follow up activities and knowledge management systems in the future, it added.

Highlighting the scope of the National Initiative ILO Country Director for Bangladesh Srinivas Reddy said, it “has seen an intensive process of cooperation and collaboration on areas such as the harmonization of inspection standards and reporting”.

BDST: 2051 HRS, JUN 24, 2015
SR/RR/SMS