Job Opportunities and Business Support (JOBS), the project of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bangladesh and implemented by the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland, organized it’s kick-off workshop on “Prospect of Protective Garments under Personal Protective Equipment” as a diversified apparel sector in close co-operation with Centre for Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) of the Netherlands on June 02, Monday 2003 at Hotel Sonargaon.

The main focus of the workshop was on protective garment as it holds a major share of imports of European Market as a fast growing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) industry. The objective was to involve Bangladesh RMG manufacturers.  Approaching Multi Fiber Arrangement (MFA), there is a potential market for these manufacturers to diversify their product into protective garment sector rather than going backward integration. According to JOBS assessment, this can be a booming market for them in the post-MFA period.

The inclusion of about 20 potential protective garments manufacturers from BGMEA into CBI and JOBS assistance programme came out as a result of the workshop. Six existing companies from Footwear, leather gloves and rubber industries under CBI programme were also present to share their experience to the potential companies. JOBS and CBI initiatives will help to enable these companies to eliminate the entry barriers and for the market access especially in the EU.

Marechal Desmet PPE Consultant from CBI presented the keynote paper.

Quazi Moniruzzaman, President BGMEA, Gene V. George, Mission Director USAID and G.K.M Towfique Hassan, Director General(Textile Cell) EPB, Anil Sinha, General Manager, SEDF, Imran Shauket, Project Director JOBS/USAID shared their valuable thoughts on the prospect of PPE in Bangladesh. High officials from the govt sector, representatives from the donor agencies, BGMEA and potential manufacturers also spoke at the workshop.