Home ›› 07 Apr 2021 ›› Back
Ibrahim Hossain Ovi
Senior and experienced entrepreneurs generally lead trade bodies, where young are seen as backbenchers.
However, the apparel sector, the largest contributor to the country’s exports earnings, has broken the glass ceiling in recent Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association elections as it elected at least 10 young entrepreneurs as directors to lead the sector for the next two years.
In the biennial BGMEA elections for 2021-23 held on April 4, apparel exporters elected 35 directors from Dhaka and Chattogram zone, of which at least 10 are second generation and first generation young entrepreneurs.
Newly-elected young board of directors are Tanvir Ahmed, a director of Envoy Fashion, and son of former BGMEA president Kutubuddin Ahmed, Shehrin Salam Oishee, director of Envoy Design and daughter of former BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy, Imranur Rahman, managing director of Laila Styles and son of former BGMEA president Siddiqur Rahman, Navidul Huq, director of MG Knit Flair and son of current president Rubana Huq, Vidya Amrit Khan, a director of Desh Garment and daughter of RMG sector pioneer M. Noorul Quader, Tanvir Habib, managing director of Legacy Fashion and son of Mahbub Ali, former first vice president BGMEA, Md. Mohiuddin Rubel director of Denim Expert, Rakibul Alam Chowdhury of HKC Apparels and Rajiv Chowdhury of Young 4 Ever Textiles.
These young entrepreneurs are mostly educated in foreign countries and are involved in the trade for the past decade.
They said that they want to contribute to the sector through their knowledge in reshaping the apparel industry, while the aged and experienced leaders said they were also keenly interested to utilise this talent group.
They also want to make them skilled enough to lead the sector for the future, when they will be on retirement.
“Being engaged in the apparel industry, I have learned from my father as well as from the manufacturing units in practical during my journey in the last 10 years,” Tanvir Ahmed, newly-elected director of BGMEA told the Business Post.
“Most of the young leaders on the board are educated in foreign countries and they are sound about the latest technology and fashion.”
“As research and innovation is the key to march forward, we will focus on it with the guidance of our experienced leaders, who are in the driving seats,” said Tanvir.
Terming the economy in a transitional phase, Navidul Huq, another newly-elected BGMEA director said they are an integral part of it.
“Our economy and industry are going through a transition. In this transition, young entrepreneurs are an integral part,” Navidul told the Business Post.
“In the last decade, the second generation and young entrepreneurs were busy with their business and went through a learning process,” he said.
In the journey of about 10 years, we have gained experiences about how to run the factories effectively and maintain a good relationship with buyers and workers,” he said.
“In these years, we worked for ourselves and now we would like to utilise the experiences for the sector to make Bangladesh number one sourcing destination.”
On top of that, the young leaders also want to focus on opening new horizons for business and providing legal support to the sector.
“For exploring new horizons, I do feel we need more concentration on the Research and Development (RnD) department,” Shehrin Salam Oishee told the Business Post.
Oishee, who is also a barrister, said that the post-COVID-19 world would be challenging and they need to resort to newer markets and a wider range and forms of products.
“Diversification will be our priority and we will also resort to specialised production items too,” she said.
“Coming from a legal background, I would want to add more to the legal support system for BGMEA in the coming days, while wanting to strengthen our bargaining power with the international organisations, most importantly with ILO,” said Oishee, a director of Envoy Design.
These young leaders also want to focus the country's branding to give Bangladesh RMG sector a new dimension.
“The image crisis is a big challenge right now for Bangladesh RMG industry. But we have a lot of issues to promote us like we have the highest number of certified green factories and the compliance at the workplace in the world,” Tanvir Ahmed, director of Envoy Group told the Business Post.
There are 144 green-certified factories in Bangladesh.
“I have been working in the sector for promoting Bangladesh through Bangladesh Denim Expo, a dedicated platform to promote the denim sector to the global buyers,” Md. Mohiuddin Rubel, a newly elected director, told the Business Post.
“Besides, I am also working on branding and image building, technology and research and innovation through our platform Bangladesh Apparel Exchange,” said Rubel, who was elected as BGMEA director for the second time.
Rubel added that the board would decide his role in BGMEA and he was ready to work accordingly.
BGMEA president Rubana Huq, whose son Navidul Huq is among the newly-elected directors, welcomed the young leaders on the board.
“I welcome the inclusion of youth and women on the board. I believe they will work with the fullest of integrity and focus,” BGMEA president Dr Rubana Huq told the Business Post.
Faruque Hassan, who bagged the highest votes among the new directors and is expected to be the next BGMEA president, promised full support for the young leaders.
“Since the young generation has studied in foreign countries and received training, they are good at the latest technology. They know how to adopt technology and integrate it in the production process,” Faruque Hassan, the present-hopeful, told the Business Post.
“Young entrepreneurs also have knowledge about the taste of consumers and buyers’ requirements. Online marketplaces are growing very fast and our young generation is skilled enough to help us move in this direction,” said Hassan, also the managing director of Giant Group.
Hassan said that the new board would focus on these issues under several projects, where these young, talented directors would be assigned to play an effective role.
“We will focus on building a design studio, where these directors will play a key role as they know the fast fashion,” said the trade leader.
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