A new project titled ‘Digital Repository of RMG Workers’ has been taken for developing a digital and credible database of the entire workforce of the country’s readymade garment (RMG) industry.
In this connection, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Brac University (BracU).
BGMEA President Faruque Hassan and Brac University Vice-Chancellor Professor Vincent Chang, were present at the signing ceremony that took place at the BGMEA office in Dhaka, according to a statement issued on Monday.
The country’s RMG sector shares a history of almost four glorious decades, but comprehensive information on its employed workers is yet to bring together, it said.
Being a labour-intensive industry and having the importance of the labour force to ensure sustainable growth, it is essential to have an accurate, complete, and credible data repository of the entire workforce of the RMG industry.
Realising this context, BGMEA and BracU have stepped to collaborate on this joint project.
The statement added the digital repository can be utilised to design significant interventions and to formulate policies for the workers’ well-being while contributing to Digital Bangladesh Vision 2021.
“We believe that the MoU signing reflected the commitment of BGMEA for a sustainable RMG industry in Bangladesh and BGMEA’s vision for a healthy industrial ecosystem”, Mr. Hassan said.
“The digital repository will help to clarify a misconception about the industry through empirical evidence” he added.
“Brac University is delighted to be a part of such industry-academia partnership and can play a vital role in bringing research integrity through this collaboration,” said Professor Vincent Chang.
Adviser, Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED) of BracU Professor Dr. Rahim B Talukdar remarked that “Through this digital repository, there will be knowledge and technology transfer between parties involved in the project.”
With the aim to enable transparency and accountability in Bangladesh’s export-oriented RMG sector, CED-BracU is already implementing a project named ‘Mapped in Bangladesh’ (MiB) which is a factory census-based digital mapping of all the export-oriented RMG factories in Bangladesh.
