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| Selected GMS Press Releases Selected GMS Press Releases |
IFC Encourages Environmental and Social Compliance in the Ready-made Garments Sector
In Dhaka
Shazia Ahmed
Phone: + (88) 337-5266 ext 145
Email: sahmed15@ifc.org
Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 22, 2007
– IFC Advisory Services for South Asia – the SouthAsia Enterprise
Development Facility – signed an agreement today to provide assistance
to the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies to make their compliance
programs more readily available in the market. These services will help
garment factories in Bangladesh assess their social and environmental standards
and implement changes to improve their conditions.
The garments sector accounts for 75
percent of Bangladesh’s export revenue and provides employment to over
2.2 million workers, 80 percent of whom are women, making this one of the
most important sectors in the country. Compliance with global environmental
and social standards is a critical issue if Bangladesh’s garments industry
is to remain competitive in the global market. “However, there is
a dearth of institutions or consulting firms who can provide quality assistance
to Bangladeshi factories that aspire to improve their environmental and
social practices,” asserts Dr. Atiq Rahman, Executive Director of Bangladesh
Centre for Advanced Studies. “With support from IFC-SEDF, we hope
to develop a business model that allows us to offer our services on a larger
scale, on a commercial basis, so we may do our part in contributing to
the improvement of factory conditions in Bangladesh.”
“This collaboration with the Bangladesh
Centre for Advanced Studies ties in with our overall strategy in the garments
sector: to build the capacity of local service providers, so that factories
have access to sustainable, high-quality services that address social and
environmental compliance issues,” explained Deepak Adhikary, Deputy General
Manager, IFC-SEDF.
The Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies
is an independent, nonprofit, nongovernmental policy research and implementation
institute that relies on donor funding. To increase the center’s
market outreach and sustainability, IFC-SEDF is helping it transform into
a commercially viable consulting firm. The first stage of this project
involves assessing the center’s organizational capacity and then designing
an action plan to address the organizational needs, legal requirements,
and institutional capacity building that are identified. The second stage,
implementation, will begin in three months.
About IFC
IFC, the private sector arm of the World
Bank Group, promotes open and competitive markets in developing countries.
IFC supports sustainable private sector companies and other partners
in generating productive jobs and delivering basic services, so that people
have opportunities to escape poverty and improve their lives. Through FY06,
IFC Financial Products has committed more than $56 billion in funding for
private sector investments and mobilized an additional $25 billion in syndications
for 3,531 companies in 140 developing countries. IFC Advisory Services
and donor partners have provided more than $1 billion in program support
to build small enterprises, to accelerate private participation in infrastructure,
to improve the business enabling environment, to increase access to finance,
and to strengthen environmental and social sustainability. For more information,
please visit www.ifc.org.
About IFC-SEDF
The IFC SouthAsia Enterprise Development
Facility is a multidonor funded facility, managed and operated by IFC.
It is one of 11 regional programs managed by IFC worldwide. IFC-SEDF is
funded by IFC, the governments of the Netherlands and Norway, the European
Commission, DFID (United Kingdom), CIDA (Canada), and the Asian Development
Bank. Set up promote the growth of SMEs in the region, it facilitates increased
access to finance and provides quality business development services to
projects in Bangladesh, Bhutan, northeast India, the Maldives, Nepal, and
Sri Lanka. IFC-SEDF also works to create a business-enabling environment
that is supportive of SMEs and assists in the value addition to firms through
sector development, organization-specific advisory services, capacity building
programs, training, and research. The ultimate goal is to assist in private
sector development to create market opportunities for SMEs and promote
economic growth in the region.
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