International Finance Corporation has taken a decision to invest its resources to support improvement in the textile sector of Bangladesh.
“Textile is a sector that we decided we would be really putting resources and this is one of our transformative agenda,” IFC South Asia Director Serge Devieux told a small group of journalists in Dhaka yesterday.
IFC has ambitious plan for next year and it wants to amplify its portfolio for textile sector to improve fire and safety standards so that no tragic incident occur in the industry, said Serge, who is responsible for IFC operations in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives.
The private sector arm of the World Bank Group invested $774m in Bangladesh last year.
“Textile sector is very important for Bangladesh in terms of export and employment generation, and IFC wants to be a part of it,” Serge said. “We are talking about complete solution.”
IFC is interested to provide advisory services to investment through forging partnership with the private sector so that the compliance issues could be addressed, the IFC director said.
People will ask questions to companies whether they are compliant and environment friendly or if they conserve energy. IFC has a vision to bring transformative changes in the sector so the issues are properly addressed, he said.
He further said IFC has already joined hands with International Labour Organisation under Better Work Programme to improve labour conditions and, fire and structural safety of the industry.
Bangladesh is the second biggest exporter of readymade garment products with an export of over $21 billion. After the tragic twin incidents – fire incident at Tazreen Fashion and collapse of Rana Plaza – the government along with international community has taken programmes to improve the condition in the sector.
Serge said Bangladesh is growing with an average of 6% growth and “there is a room for adding value.” He said: “Today it is textile, tomorrow it will be electronics, and later it will be pharmaceuticals.”
Infrastructure, gas, power production, energy, manufacturing, energy efficiency and renewable energy are the key areas where IFC is working, he added.
Regional power cooperation
IFC country director for Bangladesh Kyle F Kelhofer said Nepal and Bhutan have tremendous hydropower generation capacity and IFC would like to see direct agreement on power export from Kathmandu to Dhaka.
IFC is helping to bring relevant people together and talk through the idea as everybody needs to be involved, he said.
Bhutan and Nepal need to develop actual generation capacity and it needs financing to increase the generation, he added.
IFC is providing advisory services to Bhutan to set up a power trading company in India so it can sell power to New Delhi, Kyle said.