The Ministry of Commerce is preparing a National Chemical Management Guidelines for the textile and garments industry of Bangladesh.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany is helping the commerce ministry to develop the guideline.
A consultation session was organised by the commerce ministry on 2 January to share the draft guidelines with the stakeholders and gather their suggestions on it, read a press release.
The guideline will give textile and garment factories guidance to resource efficient management of chemicals in a way that is safe for the people working in the factories and at the same time environment friendly.
Although Bangladesh is in the second position for quite a long time now as far as export of textile and garments in the global market, there is no national guideline governing the management of chemicals.
Consequently, the textile sector is forced to comply with different standards set by different fashion brands. A comprehensive national guideline on chemical management would help address this challenge.
The draft guidelines have been developed through separate consultation with the main stakeholder groups.
The consultation session was presided over by Mst Kamrunnaher, joint secretary of Ministry of Commerce.
Representatives from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ministry of Industries, and Ministry of Labour and Employment took part in the discussion.
