Saturday, April 27, 2024
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan has stressed the need for creating easily-accessible fund and due diligence for the RMG industry, especially SMEs to support in making transition towards green growth.
“The ready-made garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh has continued its efforts to pursue excellence by embracing circularity, sustainable practices and making production process cleaner and more energy efficient,” Faruque said while addressing a national dialogue on green transition organised by Oxfam in Dhaka on Tuesday, read a press release.
“While we are committed to make strides towards reducing the emission of the industry, accessing green finance comes as a major area of concerns, especially the SME’s are not being able to access to the available green finances avenues like GTF (Green Transformation Fund), SREUP of AFD, and upcoming GCF (Green Climate Fund),” he added.
“But SMEs are mostly in need of low-cost fund as they often cannot avail regular financing schemes due to stringent due diligence.”
Parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Chairman Saber Hossain Chowdhury attended the event as chief guest.
Faruque said BGMEA had been working with the government and other stakeholders for capacity development of BGMEA member factories on energy efficiency and renewable energy while providing easy access to information on rooftop solar project implementation, facilitating garment industries to avail low-cost green finance, and jointly promote the industries working towards sustainability.
BGMEA announced its Sustainable Strategic Vision- 2030 to pursue the RMG industry growth in a sustainable manner, he added.
Oxfam initiated the multi-stakeholder national dialogue with relevant government, RMG owners and professionals, policy experts, energy experts, CSO’s, climate justice experts and development partners.
The key objective of the dialogue is to create a civic space that can support to find a tangible financial mechanism and just transition in the apparel sector of Bangladesh.
