Raising awareness among tannery owners about maintaining environmental standards could significantly boost Bangladesh's leather sector's position in the global market, making it stronger, cleaner, and of higher quality.
Organisers shared this insight during a press conference on Tuesday, where they detailed the action plan for the upcoming "National High-Level Dialogue for Greening the Tannery and Leather Sector in Bangladesh."
The dialogue aims to advance the country's leather industry as a sustainable sector.
The press conference was jointly organised by non-governmental organisations Solidar Suisse, OSHE Foundation, and Prokriti O Jibon Foundation at the office of a private TV channel in Dhaka.
Organisers said that under the supervision of Solidar Suisse, the European Union (EU) has funded the "Building a Sustainable Leather Sector in Bangladesh" project, a joint initiative of the Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE) and Prokriti O Jibon Foundation.
The three-year project has already completed its first year. As part of this, a national dialogue has been organised at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) on Thursday, in cooperation with the EU.
Delegation of European Union Bangladesh Programme Manager (Private Sector, Green Energy Transition and Social Protection) Ishrat Shabnam, Solidar Suisse Country Representative Muhammad Amanullah, OSHE Foundation Chairperson Saki Rezwana, and Prokriti O Jibon Foundation Chairman Muqeed Majumdar Babu provided details about the national dialogue.
The speakers further said that the national dialogue will discuss the ways, challenges, and strategies to eliminate the environmental pollution caused by excess waste production in the Savar leather industry city.
Additionally, there will be a discussion on managing the treatment of excess waste beyond capacity in the leather industry city during Eid-ul-Azha and a strategy will be formulated regarding that.
High-ranking government officials, high-level representatives of the EU, tannery owners, labour leaders, academic scholars, development aid and environmental organisations representatives, local authorities, and media will be present at the dialogue.
