Rotating weekly holidays in RMG sector on cards

The government is going to set weekly holiday roaster for the country’s export-oriented apparel industry to reduce load-shedding pressure so that it can provide power supply to factories by shifting the surplus to nearby areas.

The decision came at a meeting between business leaders and the Power, Energy and Mineral resources Ministry on Sunday.

The decision will be implemented from the next week.

Captive power plangs, however, will continue operation for 24/7 hours to provide uninterrupted supply of electricity to the backward linkage industry.

In Dhaka region, BGMEA have five apparel zones- Narayanganj, Ashulia, Savar, Gazipur and Mymensingh.

Besides, there are two Export Processing Zones (EPZ)- Dhaka and Narayanganj. Many Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) industrial parks are also located in those regions.

Sector insiders informed that most of the factories of the Dhaka region as well as Chattogram offer weekly day off on Friday. The rest of the days continue operation at least 10 hours in a day.

Chattogram has also an apparel zone along with EPZ and BSCIC Industrial Park. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Acting President Shahidullah Azim told The Business Post that they welcome the decision considering the ongoing situation.

“The ministry asked us to implement weekly day off in phases in the garment factories. We executed such schedule a decade back and that time we had positive feedback,” Azim said.

He also said the government is likely to increase zone number as the government priority and it may handover to us it on Monday. “After that we are going to execute it.” Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association Vice-President Fazlee Shamim Ehsan told The Business Post though the government proposed to execute weekly holiday in phases they could not ensure that the load-shedding crisis would go.