By Judith Ugwumadu | 13 September 2013
A team of UK experts has flown to Bangladesh to help with improvements in safety and building standards in the country’s garment sector, International Development Secretary Justine Greening announced over the weekend.
Following the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in April this year, which killed 1,100 garment factory workers, British experts, two from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and one from the Better Regulation Delivery Office, will meet with non-governmental organisations and Bangladeshi building regulations agency to agree a set of common compliance standards.
It is expected that their recommendations will help to protect workers by ‘bringing accountability to the supply chain’, improve workers’ health and safety and enforce robust construction standards, the Department for International Development said.
Greening said: ‘The tragic factory collapse in Bangladesh was a wake-up call about the appalling conditions that workers in the developing world endure to produce cheap clothes.
‘British retailers and industry bodies like the Ethical Trading Initiative are already working with DFID to play their part in improving safety for workers.’
The team will follow through by ‘[sharing] their wealth of experience in safe and effective building regulation to help prevent future tragedies and save lives’, she added.
In a June visit to Bangladesh, Development Minister Alan Duncan announced support for training for 100,000 low-skilled garment and construction workers.
