BGMEA President Faruque Hassan and Vice President Miran Ali attended a meeting of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) held at IFC headquarters in Washington D.C. on September 9, 2021(US Time).

Alfonso Garcia Mora, Regional Vice President for Asia and Pacific; Sabine Schlorke, Global Head, Manufacturing and Portfolio; and Tania Lozansky, Senior Manager of Advisory for Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services sectors at IFC attended the meeting which was virtually joined by Hector Gomez Ang, Regional Director for South Asia, Wendy Werner, Country Manager (Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal) and Nishat Shahid Chowdhury, Operations Officer, IFC.

In the meeting BGMEA President Faruque Hassan apprised the IFC of the progress made by Bangladesh’s apparel industry in the areas of workplace safety, social and environmental sustainability and workers’ wellbeing.

He stressed the importance of financing SMEs who are mostly in need of low-cost fund as they often cannot avail regular financing schemes due to stringent due diligence.

He sought cooperation of IFC particularly for financing SMEs for enabling them to adopt sustainability practices.

He also highlighted the future priorities of Bangladesh apparel industry, especially more focus on diversification in products, market and innovation in product development and process optimization.

He called for greater cooperation and collaboration to support the RMG industry in the areas of sustainability, product diversification, skills development, technological upgradation, innovations.

Faruque Hassan thanked IFC for its continued cooperation and support in past few decades, especially in the area of sustainability, particularly the “Partnership for Cleaner Textile: PaCT” program which has supported participating factories in reducing the carbon footprint and water footprint.