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US team happy with safety standards: BGMEA chief

Star Business Report
THE US Congress delegation was satisfied with safety standards at garment factories and was optimistic about the future of the industry, the president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said yesterday.
"I think they are happy and have been impressed by the work we are doing in the areas of health and fire safety," said Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin.
His comments came after the US team visited Sepal Garments, an export-oriented factory, owned by ruling party lawmaker Tipu Munshi, in Tejgaon, Dhaka.
The US Congressional delegation arrived in the capital on Saturday on a brief visit to discuss contemporary issues including the generalised system of preferences (GSP) with top government officials and garment leaders.
The delegation included Representative Ed Whitfield (Republican-Kentucky), Representative Scott Tipton (Republican-Colorado) and Representative Adam Schiff (Republi-can-California).
Their visit ironically coincided with a fatal fire that killed seven female workers at Smart Export Garment Ltd in Mohammadpur.
“They wanted to know what we are doing about fire safety and what the fire safety requirement are," Mohiuddin told reporters.
"We informed them about a taskforce and other initiatives to improve safety standards."
"We also told them that we will beef up our monitoring and vigilance."
Mohiuddin insisted that the fire at the Smart fac-tory would not influence the delegation, as "they are matured politicians."
“They will not be influenced by any incident or any thing," he said.
Mohiuddin said the delegation was pleased by the way the sector is progressing.
"Definitely, we can hope that they will give us their full support in Congress on GSP," he said.
The BGMEA, the industry association, always invites people from around the world to see what improvement the country has made over the years on safety standards in the garment sector.
“If you do not see it for yourself you will not experience and will not be confident about the safety system we have,” Mohiuddin said.
The majority of the country's 5,000 garment factories are compliant and have passed auditory inspections, he said.
During the hour-long factory inspection, he also told the delegation that there are factories that need improvements on safety standards.
“We have willingly told them that there are also factories with bad working conditions. We have formed a taskforce and organised training programmes to make them compliant."
“But there is nothing to fear. We will just have to get the task done,” Mohiuddin said.
The US Congressmen did not talk to the media. The US embassy officials accompanying them also remained tight-lipped.
Tipu Munshi, also a former president of BGMEA, and Md Siddiqur Rahman, second vice president of BGMEA, were present.