Bangladesh garment industry braces for fallout from Dhaka attack

DHAKA/MUMBAI: Some leaders of Bangladesh’s $26 billion garment industry anticipate Western-style retailers to review their ties with the world’s 2nd-largest garment exporter after 18 foreigners were killed in an attack on a Dhaka restaurant.

Bangladesh, one of the globe’s poorest international locations, is predicated on clothes for around eighty percent of its exports and about four million jobs. It ranks behind China as a clothes provider to evolved markets like Europe and the United States.

Militants killed 20 human beings, such as 9 Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian, and an American, inside an upmarket restaurant in Bangladesh’s capital, earlier than security forces stormed the building and ended a 12-hour standoff on Saturday.

Islamic Country stated it changed into chargeable for one of the most brazen attacks in the South Asian country’s records; however, that declaration has but to be confirmed.

It marks a primary escalation in a marketing campaign through militants over the past 18 months focused primarily on individuals advocating a secular or liberal lifestyle in majority-Muslim Bangladesh with one hundred sixty million human beings.

“An incident like this could virtually impact us, in as a good deal as our importers from places which includes (the) U.S. And China will be cautious about visiting because of the safety concerns,” stated Shahidul Haque Mukul, handling director of Ananta garments.

The industry had been recovering strongly from a main tragedy three years past, when a manufacturing facility building collapsed, killing more than one hundred humans, prompting protection exams that led to many factory closures and the loss of exports and jobs.

It had also seemed little touched with the aid of a spate of new murders of liberals, homosexual people, foreigners, and religious minorities in sporadic assaults claimed using Islamic State and al Qaeda.

However, Friday’s attack signaled an extra chilling chance for foreigners. The militants targeted a building housing upmarket eateries popular with foreigners, and several of these killed were Italian garment entrepreneurs.

Italy’s fabric imports from Bangladesh more than trebled in the closing decade to reach $1.31 billion closing 12 months, as low-price garment manufacturing moved outdoors in the EU United States.

“Bangladesh has never seen such a horrific incident,” said Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Garment Producers and Exporters Association.

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“It’s far a robust slap to our picture. It will stress our enterprise, but we can not say to what extent at the moment.”

A Bangladesh-primarily based govt for a French-based total garment buyer stated he feared a deep slump in a commercial enterprise in the coming days.

However, different industry figures stated that heightened security fears might be controlled. Producers may want to preserve greater meetings with Western clients outdoors in Bangladesh, in Asian cities such as Singapore or Hong Kong, a trend that had started in the past.

“Worries on traveling our factories, holding conferences, etc., with the aid of overseas nationals, can be there for some months; however, I trust within six months, the intensity will thaw, and matters may be lower back to normal,” said Abdullah Hil Rakib, head of exporter Brothers fashion Ltd.

At the least, Ecu retailers who source clothes from Bangladesh, Sweden’s H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB, and Britain’s Marks and Spencer Institution % say their operations inside the u. S. A. Are not without delay affected.

Each said their workers are unaffected and have been monitoring the situation.

“There are no plans in changing any sourcing; however, we’re following the development closely,” Ulrica Bogh Lind, spokeswoman for H & M, told Reuters.

She stated the agency had “safety routines” for employees, adding the agency was in contact with its office in Dhaka.

The industry owes its resilience to some sectors’ lowest wages, the right skills, and the truth that China has become much less aggressive as a manufacturer in recent years.

The minimum monthly wage for garment people in Bangladesh is $68, compared to approximately $280 in mainland China.