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RMG buyers inquiring about factory collapse

Staff Correspondent
The collapse of a nine-storey building of tiie export-oriented garments factory at Savar on Monday has raised questions among buyers in Europe and US over compliance of safety rules in the industry.
In the wake media reports on the
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incident, a number of foreign buyers called up garments industry owners to know why the building crumbled and also to check if everything is okay with their deals, some factory owners told The Daily Star yesterday.
A few compliance experts, who inspect factories to check if they comply with the health and safety requirement, say the building collapse is unlikely to shake buyers' confidence in the Bangladeshi garments industry.
If such incidents take place frequently, it will affect export, said Abdul Karim, local compliance officer of GAP, a leading US chain store. "Buyers may review their decision to procure readymade garments from Bangladesh if such major disasters take place again and again," Karim added.
Requesting anonymity, a compliance expert working for a number of leading buyers, said, " Buyers, especially in US, want that their sellers have factories with proper health and safety measures. These include fire safety, adequate emergency exits, boiler safety, work place safety."
He went on, "They (buyers) usu-
ally do not check if a factory building has basic structural flaws because it is very unusual. They also don't inquire if the building is constructed in a swamp or other oddlocations."
He mentioned that in the recent years, export-oriented garment factories have taken initiatives to comply with most of the buyers' requirement on safety and health. International competition and the post-MFA scenario have made the factory owners more aware about improving the local standards.
"The Savar incident is an exceptional instance of factory owners' negligence," he said.
Mahbubul Alam, director of buying house Pertex Ltd, which supplies readymade garment for Marshal Group of Germany and Frutex France and Eastern Gate of France, said, "The incident (at Savar) is an unusual one. We do not know as yet what will be the reaction of the European buyers who are typically concerned about fire hazards or stampedes."
The incident will however affect the mindset of the foreign buyers, he thought.