Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine October Issue 2018 | Page 38

BEYOND BD HAVE YOUR SAY BREAKING NEWS Tell us your news by emailing at [email protected] To read the latest sustainability news, go to https://apparelresources.com/business-news/sustainability/  Japan apparel import falls 7.97% in May '18 Japanese apparel import got a sharp fall in May this year as the country imported apparels worth US $ 1,996 million in the said month, while the import value in April was US $ 2,169 million. The fall recorded was 7.97 per cent on monthly basis. Knitted apparel import plunged significantly to US $ 913.32 million as compared to US $ 1,015 million in April. On the other hand, woven clothing import too plummeted to US $ 1,083.63 million in May from US $ 1,155.50 million in April,  this year. The downfall was noted mainly due to the declining value of Japanese yen. However, cumulatively during January to May ’18 period, Japan’s import value stood at US $ 1,076 billion noting a surge by 2.46 per cent, respectively. Bangladesh and Vietnam continued their robust performance in their respective apparel exports to Japan during the first 5 months of the year. Bangladesh exported apparels worth US $ 453 million marking 13.64 per cent surge, while Vietnam’s shipment to Japan stood at US $ 1,423.32 million with a surge of 14.81 per cent on the yearly note. Markedly, India witnessed a growth in overall apparel export shipment to Japan, valued at US $ 147.91 million noting 9.54 per cent growth in the said period. However, the period did not turn out to be positive for knit clothing as exports of this segment fell by 1.11 per cent. It’s pertinent to mention here that Japan has signed an FTA with EU recently which is said to make imports cheaper from the region, in upcoming months. Several Myanmar factories keen to take part in MYPOD project Several garment and textile firms in Myanmar have now shown keen interest to be a part of the three-year MYPOD (Myanmar Productivity, Occupational Health and Safety and Social Dialogue) project that was commenced in August 2017. The objective of MYPOD project is to enhance the productivity of the workers, thereby improving their health and safety at workplace and improving the relations of workers through effective dialogue in some selected factories in Myanmar. The baseline studies for productivity and social dialogue, which were successfully conducted under MYPOD project in some factories, from March to June 2018, have caught the attention of many factories to go for this project. The aforementioned study helped in not only identifying efficiency issues but also the areas where social dialogue could be implemented to enhance productivity, especially with regard to bargaining through dialogue between management and workers so as to build lasting lean systems in the factories. These studies were ably led by Aalborg University and 3F in partnership with local partners. It is worth noting that the selected factories have been successfully able to solve their bottlenecks in less than a month ever since the lean system was initiated and the baseline studies were conducted. One of the major learnings from the project is that the collaboration between the lean expert and the operational team from the factories is essential to lead to the process of engaging the top management. The first batch of interventions that is currently on track will continue till December 2018. After proper evaluation of the interventions, results will be analysed and shared with relevant stakeholders. The second batch of factory interventions will be then taken up in early 2019. The project involves various Danish partners, such as DIEH, Aalborg University, 3F and 38 Apparel Online Bangladesh | October 2018 | www.apparelresources.com BESTSELLER together with the UK based Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). Besides, the local project partners will be represented by Yangon Technological University and the two trade unions – Myanmar Industries Craft and Services (MICS) and Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM).