Textile Industry Scenario of Bangladesh-6

Summary

The future of the Bangladeshi textile production lies in the development of high-value-added products, suitable for, in the short term, export markets, but, in the long term, the local market. In order to develop such products, Bangladesh needs strengthening of its design potential. This should mainly be done training Bangladeshi designers, but for, short term gains in the export markets, the use of foreign designers will be necessary. The foreign designers should, however, have training in the workplace as an import integrated part of their work. This way, product development and training in the workplace will be combined, giving both short term and longer-term effects.

The Textile industry and the jute mills need to export to large and varied markets For the crafts producers the much smaller high value niche markets are the most important. Accordingly, the proposals for the further involvement of DwB, is divided into two, concentrating on the large jute mills and the smaller crafts producers. We have not made any project proposal for design and product development in the clothing industry, partly because this is a large sector of which our knowledge is limited, and partly because we believe that supporting the newly established schools teaching designers for this industry, is important at this time.


1. The Jute and Textile Mills

The proposal is to concentrate on innovative product development in all, or selected areas, of jute and Textile production in collaboration with, for instance, the Industrial Design Department at the School of Architecture in Oslo, Norway, and/or the NTNU University in Trondheim, Norway.


2. The Crafts producers

The proposal is to establish a program consisting of several elements, where the role of DwB is to develop a product and training program built on the experiences made by the Dutch designers in the Norad jute project and the textile designer Jackie Corlett´s ideas and experience on training in the workplace.

3. The Design Education Institutions

I do not recommend establishing a cooperation programme with the design education institutions, as they are very young and weak. However, the design institutions should, if possible, become integrated in the other programmes in the sense that designers or design students involved in program 1 and 2 also can take part in teaching, training and learning activities in and in exchange with the schools.

Literature

Chand, Vinay: Draft Report on Norad´s Jute Project

Corlett, Jackie: Discovering Design - design education in a development situation, Middlesex University 1995

Gnuznavi, Sayyada Ruby: Rangeen – Natural Dyes of Bangladesh, Dhaka 2002

Islam,Sadequel: The Textile and Clothing Industry if Bangladesh in a Changing World Economy, Dhaka 2001

Latif, Muhammad Abdul: Handloom Industry of Bangladesh 1947-90, Dhaka 1997

Sayem, A.S.M.: Paper of January 10th 2002, as presented on the web June 18th 2003

Zaman, Niaz: The Art of Kantha Embroidery

Appendix

Contacts and/or potential partners

Aids to Artisans

Will have to be investigated.

Ahsanulla University

Will have to be investigated.

AUTEX Association for the Universities of Textiles

Will have to be investigated.

Bangladesh Handicrafts Manufacturing and Exporter Association, Banglacraft.

Banglacraft is the crafts businesses´ trade organisation, which currently is busy planning to build a design and research development centre in Dhaka. Membership is compulsory by law. Around 200 crafts businesses are members. The organisation is the seat of political fractions and is critisized for being inefficient and unlawful.


Bangladesh College of Textile Technology

This college under the Dhaka University is teaching students of textile. I heard little about it in Bangladesh and also found very little information is available on Internet. Academic director: M. Rahman.

Address: Tejgaon 1

1208, Dhaka

Bangladesh

Some say this government institution does have computers with CAD-Cam programs but that the college does not know how to use them.

Development of linkages between SCIs and large and medium sized industries.

BSCIC has developed a total of 30 industrial estates throughout the country to foster the growth of SCIs in a balanced manner, planning, development and construction works for another 54 estates are under execution so that there is at least one industrial estate in each district of the country.

Having not met anyone from the BSCIC during my stay in Bangladesh, this organization should be visited later. We need to know more about their activities and their degree of success.

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, BUET

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, abbreviated as BUET, claims to be one of the most prestigious institutions for higher studies in the country. About five thousand students are pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in engineering, architecture, planning and science in this institution. The total number of teachers is over four hundred. The BUET campus is in the heart of Dhaka. It has a compact campus with halls of residence within walking distances of the academic buildings. The physical expansion of the University over the last three decades has been impressive with construction of new academic buildings, auditorium complex, halls of residence etc.

Faculties
• Faculty of Architecture & Planning:
• Faculty of Civil Engineering:
• Faculty of Electrical & Electronic Engineering:
• Faculty of Engineering:
• Faculty of Mechanical Engineering:

Grameen Ghanashasto Textile Mills Ltd

In the chapter on the handloom industry, it is mentioned that Grameen Uddogg is running a successful export hand weaving business selling Grameen checks. It is interesting to find out more about their export strategy and design experience.

The national Handloom Board

I have not been able to find information on the Bangladesh Handloom Board on Internet.

International design education institutions

It will be necessary to find good cooperation partners in Norway or other Western countries if DwB is going to realize any of the project proposals.

International design companies

It will be necessary to find good cooperation partners in Norway or other Western countries if DwB is going to realize any of the project proposals.

International design and crafts organizations

It will be necessary to find good cooperation partners in Norway or other Western countries if DwB is going to realize any of the project proposals.


National Crafts Council of Bangladesh (Bangladesh Jatiya Karushilpa Parishad)

The National Crafts Council of Bangladesh (NCCB) was established in 1985 to research, develop and promote the indigenous crafts of the country. There are 200-250 members.

The NCCB plans to undertake a major project to research, document and publish a book, “Textile Traditions of Bangladesh”, on the four prime textile traditions of this country; Jamdani, silk, indigenous weaves and Kantha embroidery. It will study and document the traditional techniques, the looms and other ancillary tools, yarns and dyes used in the production process. An important component of the project is the following up of the creative interaction of four of the best designers with the finest weavers and embroiderers of the country.

South Asia Enterprise Development Facility, SEDF

The South Asia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF) was launched in October 2002 to support sustainable growth and development of the SME sector in Bangladesh, Northeast India, Bhutan and Nepal. The bulk of SEDF’s resources are geared toward assisting Bangladesh’s SMEs, which account for over 80 percent of the industrial labor force and 50 percent of the nation’s output. Boosting competitiveness and productivity of the SME sector will translate to higher incomes for its workers and greater employment in an economy where half the population, representing 60 million people, remains in poverty. Partnering with IFC, the World Bank Group, other development institutions, as well as the public and private sector, SEDF is strengthening local SMEs through programs based on four strategic pillars:

Access to Finance

Providing banks training courses, technical assistance (TA), workshops and seminars to improve their operating efficiency and increase their SME lending

Assisting SMEs in writing loan applications and good business plans

Business Development Services Programs to “train the trainers” or build capacity of local training institutions and consultants so they can then offer local firms highly flexible, affordable, and more SME-focused technical and managerial training opportunities

Business Enabling Environment working with SMEs, SME business associations and policy-makers to mobilize efforts toward greater SME advocacy

Special Projects

Establishing linkages between SMEs and large corporate in key sub-sectors (e.g. agribusiness and ready-made garments) as a source of SME growth and job creation

Increasing inter-regional trade between Bangladesh and Northeast India

Headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, SEDF is managed by the IFC SME Department. Donors include UK, Canada, ADB, IFC, DFID.


Traidcraft

Traidcraft is the UK’s leading fair trade organization, which was set up in 1979 to challenge the unfair way in which international trading systems are usually structured. Traidcraft operates on the principle that by paying a fair price for the products we buy, and establishing long-term relationships of partnership and co-operation, we can help poor communities to work their way out of poverty and create a more equitable world. Most of Traidcraft’s trading partners are community-based enterprises and associations of smallholder farmers organized for the benefit of their producers and growers. Traidcraft can give producers access to credit, which allows them to buy the raw materials they need. We also support training programmes, which develop the skills and knowledge of our producers. Traidcraft is a Christian initiative, which welcomes co-operation with all who share a concern for fairer trade.

Voluntary Service Overseas

The VSO is a Britain-based NGO helping volunteers to find positions in developing countries. The VSO has designers among their volunteers, having received requests for craft, product and technical designers to work in countries as diverse as Nepal, Zambia, Namibia and Bangladesh.

VSO volunteers with a background in craft or product design work in two main types of placement. Some work in educational institutions training students, others work with local craftspeople and small enterprises, advising on the design, production and marketing of goods produced with local materials. Relevant degree or HND with two years related experience is necessary Qualifications. Marketing experience will be required for some posts.

Maybe the VSO can be a partner in part of the program that Design without Borders will be developing.

Textile Industry Scenario of Bangladesh-5

Programme suggestions
In addition to the principles that are part of all DwB-projects, I have taken the liberty of formulating some principles for development projects in the field of textile design in Bangladesh that I find especially important for future projects.

Principles
In order to create lasting effects, the aim of any DwB project should be to leave as much expertise in Bangladesh as possible. An aspect of this is the length of a programme, which is also being stressed by our Bangladeshi contacts. Potential project participants from the West will have to learn about local skills, materials, and production processes etc. in order to make suggestions and design that will have a long-term positive effect.

Participation in a project should always represent an investment for the participants. Only then will the motivation for development be present, " there should be no such thing as a free lunch"

It is the nature of organizing projects as a means of developing, that everything cannot be planned in advance. There must be room for adjustments within the project process.

Because the supply of designers is so little and the time it will take until the educational institutions can provide qualified graduates is so long, the emphasis in development projects should be on training in the workplace, enhancing existing skills. As a consequence hereof, product development should be combined with training in the workplace. A German industrial designer claims that training should be 50 % of a design job.

Developing projects in Bangladesh should be done in such a way that all participants feel ownership to the project, if possible having cooperated in developing the project plan.

Projects for Whom?
As pointed out by Mr. Chand in his report on the Norad jute project, the large mills and the smaller crafts producers do not have the same importance to the economy of Bangladesh. Only the backing of the mills can provide a production volume that will give substantial gains to the economy.

The producers are economically important in a different way, mainly by offering jobs to the rural population, especially women, mr Chand writes. The economical importance of the Crafts Sector should, however, not be underestimated, as the entire handloom industry, supplying 77% of the local market, could not do without the crafts businesses.

Which markets?

If a designer is required to design for a foreign rather than local market, then certain skills are not able to develop in a full and relevant way. The problem is the same for designers either in industry or crafts. In many respects they are being asked to design for virtual situations only. After all, very few of the designers in these businesses will ever get the chance to visit the markets they design for, let alone be able to spend time enough in them to really develop an understanding of the nuances of a situation.

Accordingly, western designers can best help with designs for the export markets of Bangladesh. However, as the local market is changing rapidly due to the increasing buying power of an internationally oriented middle class, the products designed for the export market may very well have a future in the local market.


Target Groups
Concluding my investigations in Bangladesh, we have found it useful to make three potential target groups for project proposals, as these groups, as far as we can see, have different needs.


1. The Jute Mills

2. The Crafts and Textile Producers

3. The Design Education Institutions

Further development of soft thread and fabric
As Mr. Chand writes, it is a good way to look at the new jute fabric treating is as a material, "the first step in the development". The development of a softer thread will open up large markets. Research, producing a softer thread, is also important for the crafts producers. Sustainable development of blended threads undoubtedly has a large potential. Some of the craft producers express interest in testing mixes of jute/pineapple, jute/banana etc.


Training in companies in the West

This was mentioned as a means of supplying further education to employees in the mills.

Potential partners

As potential partners for these project ideas, have been mentioned:

DTC

South Asia Enterprise Development Facility, SEDF

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, BUET

Educational institutions in the West

Design companies

Finding the right partners will need further investigation.

Most of the crafts producers that are interested in textile sector, are small businesses and have a limited production, making, or wanting to make, crafts products for niche markets. Reaching out to high status niche markets, design, quality and ability to deliver will be the deciding selling factors, not the price. This is to the best for Bangladesh producers, who neither in the short nor in the long run will be able to compete with China and India on price.

As potential partners have been mentioned:

• National Crafts Council of Bangladesh (Bangladesh Jatiya Karushilpa Parishad)

• Banglacraft

• Traidcraft

• Voluntary Service Overseas

• International design education institutions

• International design companies

• International design and crafts organizations

Proposals for the Design Education Institutions
Design awareness does not have to be learnt through experience, it obviously can be taught.


The educational institutions in Bangladesh as described in the report, are few and far between. The BIFT and the Shanto-Mariam University of Creative technology are both very young institutions, the BIFT being the "oldest" was established in 1999. These institutions are not only young, they are also weak. There are many warning voices being heard in Bangladesh as far as cooperating with "non-established" institutions that may be too weak to survive.


On the other hand, the weaknesses also make a need for support very obvious. The one aspect will have to be weighted against the other in the farther discussions within the DwB. The support needed as described by the BIFT and the Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology can be divided into these areas:

As far as student exchange programmes can be developed, this would most probably have a positive effect both in Bangladesh and the cooperating institutions.

• International design education institutions

• International design companies

• International design and crafts organizations

The potential partners are described in the Appendix at the back of the report.


Further investigations
Recommendation is that further investigations in Bangladesh should be undertaken, especially looking into

• Other product development programs run by NGOes and donors

• Potential partners


Trade in Textiles and Clothing after 2005.


Listen to politicians, trade specialist and some academics and you will get the impression that the future is always going to be bright, for all, everywhere. In the common language of the casino "Everyone's a winner".

Spend some time on the ground, however, and doubts soon begin to creep in. Listen to manufacturers, workers and it quickly becomes clear that, in trade, for every winner there are numerous losers.

In the Textile and Clothing sector it is hard to see that the enormous amount of trade generated in recent years has been spread evenly and has benefited those employed in the sector. In spite of the huge expansion of the industry in many countries living standards have actually fallen.


No wonder to take Bangladesh. In less than 20 years employment in the garment sector there grew to more than 1.5 million, mainly young women workers.

Most work 7 days a week often 12 to 14 hours per day. Existing labour legislation is largely ignored. Health and safety is of little consideration. Hundreds of workers were burnt to death in factory fires in recent years.

Bangladesh's legal minimum wage was last raised in 1994. It was then worth Euro 33 a month. Today it is worth less than Euro 17. So in nine years real wages have halved. At the same time a great many companies in the country, perhaps the majority, don't even pay this amount for a standard working week.

Bangladesh is not, in any way, unique. Real wages have fallen in every continent. Gross abuses of worker rights are commonplace as companies in countries tussle for competitive advantage. As a consequence most workers can't afford to purchase the goods they themselves produce. Thus no real local markets have been developed and the industry depends for its future on exporting to a handful of nations.

It is clear that across the world there has been no even spread of benefits from trade in textiles and clothing to date.


What about the future?

Today 130 countries are producing textiles and clothing for export to markets in only about 30 nations. Many of these 130 are totally dependent on those exports in terms of foreign exchange earnings and employment.

Take Nepal. Their garment export arose by 38% in 1999 and 44% in 2000. They now represent 25% of the country's total export trade.


Take Pakistan. There the textile sector accounts for 60% of all exports with 1.4 million workers employed.

Take India. Here again textile and clothing constitutes more that a third of the country's export trade. 94% of all garment exports go to the United States or the European Union.

Take Bangladesh. Here garments account for 75% of all exports. The industry employs 1.5 million workers and provides 70% of all formal sector employment for women. Bangladesh is totally dependent on its export trade with the European Union and the US which take 95% of all textile and clothing exports.

In export and employment terms the picture is similar for a huge number of countries: Lesotho, Mauritius, Tunisia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Honduras, El Salvador, Turkey, and Bulgaria. The list is almost endless.

So countless countries and their peoples are highly dependent on the benefits of textile trade being spread evenly. This hasn't happened in the past so is it likely to improve after the abolition of quota controls under the Multi-Fiber Arrangement at the beginning of 2005?

Evidence to date gives huge cause for concern. Last year's US trade statistics suggest that China is increasingly dominating world trade in textiles and clothing and will intensify its dominance after 2004. In the first ten months of 2002, China's textile and garment exports to the United States increased by 105%. Most developing countries saw their exports fall, Bangladesh by 5% and Jamaica by 19% for example.


A glimpse of the future is provided by what happened during those same 10 months to textile and clothing items freed from quota for the first time in 2002. Imports of all such garment items to the United States for the first ten months of the year saw China's share jump by 30% while the rest of the world suffered a 28% fall.

At the same time the prices of Chinese imports fell by 35% while those from the rest of world fell by 11%.

These figures suggest that China is driving other developing countries out of the US market and China's deflationary impact will further drive down wages and worsen working conditions in the sector. Already consultants in countries like Bangladesh are blaming labour protection for the lack of competitivity of the local industry when pitched against China.


Today, China's strength as a global garment exporter is not seriously rivaled by any other single country. Rather, it competes with entire trading blocks of countries.

It looks as if we are moving to a unipolar world in textiles where China is the pole.

A further look at US imports of individual items removed from quota in 2002 confirms this view. For example, China's exports of printed cloth to the United States increased by 65% in the first 10 months of 2002 while India's exports fell by 48%, Bangladesh's by 42% and Indonesia's by 34%.

In infants wear, China increased its exports to the United States by an amazing 306% in the same period while the Philippines saw its exports drop by 20%, Mexico's drop by 17% and Bangladesh's drop by 16%.

If the situation continues like this many developing countries dependent on exports of textiles and clothing are likely to see their economies destroyed over the coming few years.


This is already beginning to happen with factories closing across the world as orders are re-directed to China. According to Bangladesh's Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association hundreds of factories have closed there in the last year or so and thousands of jobs have been lost. Factories are also closing with huge job losses in Mexico, Indonesia, across Central America and even in Turkey. As a consequence workers everywhere are being told that they must be more competitive if they are to survive in a textiles and clothing world dominated by China. The message here is clear, wages will have to fall and working conditions worsen.

The ITGLWF in reviewing the situation across the world believes that one million jobs could be lost in Bangladesh alone as a result of the abolition of quotas at the beginning of 2005. A further million jobs could be lost in Indonesia, tens of thousands in Sri Lanka and literally millions of other jobs in every continent across the world.

What future would there be for a country like Bangladesh so dependent on textiles and clothing exports if the industry is thus driven out of business? What will happen to the one million workers, mainly young women, who will be displaced?

This can not be permitted to happen. Steps must be taken to ensure that trade in textiles is arranged in such a way as to promote real sustainable development.

Accordingly, the ITGLWF and each of its regional organizations and a great many of its affiliates are convinced that any strategy for the future of the textiles and the clothing industries must include action on the trade and industrial policy fronts.

The sectors today face a crisis globally that is likely to worsen following the end of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement at the end of 2004. Clearly the future of the industries is being dictated by globalization driven by the major economic and trading blocks and nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the transnational manufacturers, merchandisers and retailers who dominate the sector.

The crisis in the sector is not due to overcapacity or overproduction as some contend. In stead it is grounded in under consumption with hundreds of millions of people, including workers employed in the textiles, clothing and footwear export industries, not able to afford decent clothes or shoes. It is now urgent that global trading arrangements, a key element of sustainable development, are used to ensure that trade in textiles, clothing and footwear benefits those employed in their production. The ITGLWF accordingly believes that an urgent review of trade liberalization, particularly its impact on employment and working conditions is labour intensive industries such as textiles, clothing and footwear is needed.

In addition there must be tripartite involvement in all future trade negotiations. The inclusion of labour standard conditionalities in all international trade agreements is imperative.

Continuation of trade regulation after the end of the Textile and Clothing Agreement in 2005 and its extension to footwear is necessary to enable measures designed to help emerging and struggling industries, particularly in developing countries, adjust to meet the threat posed by dominant producers such as China, including clear restraints on such dominant producers. Finally the promotion of trade based on respect for international labour standards through rewards and sanction-based mechanisms must be a central part of any trade policy.

On the industrial front all countries with significant textiles and clothing industries should establish a development strategy for the textile, clothing and footwear industries. This strategy should provide for interventions in areas such as; respect for international labour standards; worker development especially the development of women workers; skills training; technology diffusion; productivity; improved management; enhanced quality; and market development both internally and externally.

In short, production of and trade in textile, clothing and footwear items can not continue to serve only the interests of multinational merchandisers and retailers in a handful of industrialized countries.

The new era that will be ushered in by the termination of the Multi-Fiber Agreement provides the opportunity for real change. However, the real question is, do our politicians and trade specialists have the courage to promote sustainable development in the sectors. If they don't -millions of workers and their families face a dire future. A future where there can be only one huge winner - China -and millions of losers elsewhere.

Textile Industry Scenario of Bangladesh-4

Based on my own impressions, I have categorised different approaches to working with design in Bangladesh into a number of models:

The buyer model
In “The buyer model” the buyer brings materials and designs, often including patterns, to the producer. The producers learn how to make one particular design, but do not learn anything about the market research and trend analysis that lie behind the design nor about the actual act of designing and the design management process.


In the clothing industry it is even often so that apparel assembled in one country has had parts cut to shape in another country. Even “flat goods” such as bed sheets, linen, scarves and handkerchiefs are not necessarily cut to size, hemmed and sewn, in the same country. Here the producer is seen as a machine. The entire design process is made elsewhere.

The Dutch group of designers were Anita Kars, Remco Kemper, Annyta Lollyta, Yvonne Laurysen and Wim Schermer.


As the experience with this way of working seems to be very positive, I suggest that the next phase of this DwB project will include a more thorough look into this method.

The Private Initiative Model
Naturally, there is also private initiative in Bangladesh seeking innovation. Mr. Shamim in Prabartana has collaborated with a British-born textile designer, Jackie Corlett, and an Indian textile design student, Namrata Jshas, in creating the fabric collection “Misty Waters”. Namrata Jshas did it at her last school project. All the three partners are getting 10 % royalties of sales and the fabrics are being promoted both by Jackie Corlett´s company Motif and by Prabartana. An ISO 9001 certificate has been issued. The fabrics are made of different combinations of jute, cotton, silk and metallic threads, being a real challenge for the weavers that took part in the project development. The textile designer worked with a weaver, sharing a loom. Prabartana is eager to export the “Misty Waters Collection”.


Later, Prabartana engaged Namrata Jshas to design a collection of “fusion” clothes for young people. Mr. Shamim sees this as a good investment that was worth the 150 000 Taka he had to pay for 90 days of work. He believes that this collection will last a year.


Prabartana has, on its own initiative, developed handmade paper from the left over threads from the weavers warp. Mr. Shamim is interested in focusing on documentation and on the planning process in future designs projects, and wants to learn to run his business according to the principles of design management.

This model of self-sufficiency is a very good one, - in a sense, this is ideally how the companies should be able to work. The problem, however, is the scarcity of available designers and the need to strengthen the design knowledge on all levels of production. The process has just begun and needs to be continued.

The Jackie Corlett model
The British-born textile designer Jackie Corlett made an introductory course, an in-training programme, called Discovering Design, when she was working for the NGO Heed in the early 90-ies.


Jackie Corlett writes, “…The designers in Bangladesh were becoming ‘Western designers’ by proxy. The majority of their work was simply a matter of interpreting what a buyer wanted into what a craft worker could make, ensuring that everyone was happy. This is still a very important concern in developing this training programme, but it is essential that designers gain confidence in their own innovative abilities. This is a much stronger resource to compete with, in the international market that most of these people are in, than being good ‘interpreters’.”


She has later, writing a Masters Thesis, developed a training program with this long-term aim:

To provide well-designed products for Bangladeshi export markets in order to keep up with the competition and become pro-active in those markets, as well as being able to seek new ones, by recognizing both renewal and innovation in the design process

To source local markets for these products, or adapt versions of them, in order to reduce reliance solely on export trade and to raise the quality and desirability of nationally made goods

To use their design skills to impact problems in the designers’ own local environments and communities so as to raise awareness of the importance of design as an effective resource for problem solving

The course consists of 24 classes. Jackie Corlett is using a lot of her course material in her teaching position at the BIFT. However, as far as I know, this course has never been implemented in the work place, as it was indented. I suggest that Jackie Corlett´s training model should be further investigated on the next phase of this DwB project.

The Training or Service Centre Model
Knowing that the formal design education institutions will use a long time providing the much needed design competence, the idea of training or service centers has developed. The intention is that the producers here can buy short-term services in order to strengthen their design and product development competence. The two existing/planned service centers in Dhaka are described in design education part.

None of the craft businesses that I have talked to, are enthusiastic about the idea of a service center, neither the existing DTC or the prospect of a new one as planned by ECOTA and Tradecraft. This lack of enthusiasm is most likely based on experience. The failure of the government-initiated Common Facility Centers, supposed to create helpful institutions for the handloom industry, is also not forgotten.


The weakness of the training center model is that the craftspeople are not easily included in the training. They rarely take part in this kind of activity. It is better that they are trained in the production process.

Markets
Initially, all the people we talked to in Bangladesh, talked about exports, how important is to export and how they are lacking the necessary design competence to reach the export markets. During the prolonged talks, we realized that there are nuances in this approach. The importance of the local market, with its 130 million potential consumers, became clear. This does not mean, however, that export is of no importance. On the contrary, for the large mills the export market is crucial and even for the craft producers there is a wish for app 30 % of the production to be exported.


The Local Market
The local market in Bangladesh is large, considering the country’s 130 million inhabitants. Even if many are poor and have little money to spend, there is a large and growing middleclass with spending power.

The textile crafts certainly have a local market. Aarong, the largest crafts producer, has done market research showing that the rising middle class is buying clothes and presents at their shops. Also the Experts are well-to-do crafts consumers.

The new jute fabric will probably have a local market in Bangladesh. Some say that the price so far is too high. If the craft producers of the Norad project decide to participate in the NCCB exhibition in the National Museum in October, it will be give some indication of the reception in the local market.

Designers, of whatever level of training, who can work for a home market are undoubtedly at an advantage. The practice in trial and error is certainly of value and a lot less costly than if the market is an overseas one; the exposure to shifting trends allows a designer to develop a sense for the market and, in time, the ability to predict market trends and design with confidence to meet them. Therefore, Bangladeshi (or even Indian) designers are best suited for product development for the local market.

The Regional Market
The regional market must be divided into two:

1. The Asia Pacific Region including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Indonesia as well as the Asian Tigers and the Indian subcontinent


2. The subcontinent, consisting of Pakistan, India and Nepal, has the advantage of being a market with cultural similarities, i.e. in ways of dressing.


Bangladesh can only compete with India when making products that are not made in India or making products of a better quality, some say.

Designing for the subcontinent should be done by designers ingrained in the culture of the area. This is also true for the Asia Pacific Region, meaning that there is a need for special competence about, for instance, Australia or Japan. This market knowledge will currently have to be brought into Bangladesh from other countries.

The International Market

The international trade of textiles is highly competitive. Skill, design and quality are essential. But, equally important is the need to assess national and international demand and integrate it into the production process. NCCB wants Bangladeshi crafts sold in the international markets; the main reason being that the local market cannot absorb all that is produced.


NORAD is planning an international market study as the next step after the jute project. Hopefully, this will be useful not only for the large jute mills, but also for the crafts producers using, or interested in using, jute in their production.

There can be no doubt that very few of the Bangladeshi designers know the international markets. There is a unison cry in Bangladesh saying that they do need help from foreign designers to be able to make products that can be sold internationally. This is even more the case if the products are going to be developed into high-value niche products.

Design education
“Design education does not yet seem to have reached the agenda of either pro-active donor involvement or the multi-nationals. There does not appear to be an awareness of the integral part in a nation’s industrialisation that well trained designers can and should play. “

From Jackie Corlett´s Master thesis
Jackie Corlett also writes that the central key to understanding why design education is important in development situations is the learning the way in which designers think and tackle problems. There are apparently skills that designers possess in analysis and synthesis, which could be used for purposes other than the creation of objects.

A.S.M. Sayem, a M. Sc. student at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, suggests in a paper that there is a need of at least one textile and clothing graduate (speaking of as diverse a group as textile and clothing technologists and engineers, textile chemists, fashion technologists etc.) for the existing 3000 running garment factories and in average five graduates for the existing about 500 different textile mills including spinning, weaving, knitting and dyeing printing mills, totally there is a need of 5500 textile graduates in the textile and clothing industry “at this moment”. Designers not necessarily included.

The Bangladesh College of Textile Technology, a constituent of the University of Dhaka, has successfully graduated 1500 students. Mr. Sayem writes that Ahsanullah University has opened a textile department, but this is so far unknown to me and will have to be researched before the next trip to Bangladesh.

The BGMEA, The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Export Association, has opened a fashion and technology institute in 2000, the BIFT. Not mentioned by Mr. Sayem is another new institution, the Shanto-Marian University of Creative Technology, having started this year (2003), but with ambitions of becoming the design university of Bangladesh.

All the same, there is a large gap between the needs of the textile and clothing industry and the supply of graduates, be it in textile technology and/or design. It should also be mentioned that no institutions in Bangladesh offer Master’s level education or the opportunity of MPhil or PhD research works in the field.


Higher education

We visited the BGMEA Institute of Fashion and Technology and the Shanto-Marian University of Creative Technology:

The BGMEA Institute of Fashion and Technology, BIFT


The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Exports Association, BGMEA, started an institute of fashion and technology in 1999, realizing the need of trained designers and skilled managers in the clothing industry, especially after 2004 when the MFA (the Multifiber Agreement) is ending. Both India and Sri Lanka have invested in academic institutions training people for the readymade garment sector.

The four-year degree programs start out teaching basic skills in designing and making apparels. Then the students can go on to a

B.Sc. in Pattern Cutting & Design

Or a

B.Sc. in Garment Manufacturing Management

The hope is that trained designers will not only enlarge the market for clothing but will also generate demand for a whole range of products manufactured indigenously and industrially in Bangladesh, as the school will turn out designers and merchandisers trained to operate in the global market.

Scottish Sheena Falconer, previously teaching textile design and clothing at the Robert Golden´s University in Aberdeen, was the first principal at BFIT, but did not get her two-year contract renewed in 2002, after having problems with the internal politics in the BGMEA. She is now Pro Vice Chancellor at the even newer Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology. The British-born textile designer Jackie Corlett is presently the only design teacher at BIFT.


The students start at the age of 16-18 after having finished “second division in both SSC and HSC”, or A-levels (British system) or high school (American system). There are currently 200 students in this private school. The cost of a degree is approximately 270 000 Taka. This school is equipped with sewing machines, but do not have computers for the students. The standard of the classrooms is very simple.

The BIFT try to find business placements for their students, hoping this will make future employment easier, i.e. one student is working 3 hours 5 days a week at Prabartana. Outside of the BIFT, there seems to be certain pessimism as to the students actually getting jobs. Some claimed that many companies do not want to employ an educated designer, thinking that the designer will soon leave for a new job. They would rather rely on the people with less education who will stay in the job.

The Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology

The Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology is a new private university, consisting today of Bangladesh Institute of Art, Design and Technology (BIADT) and the Shanto-Mariam Academy of Creative Technology, the first offering education in art, design and computing and the latter planning cultural training centers for children in rural Bangladesh.

The first students started at the BIADT in the beginning of June 2003 for a two-year course. The plans are to develop into the design University of Bangladesh.

Professor Falconer is interested in all kinds of cooperation that would add competence to her faculty and/or faculty to her school. She also wishes to develop a joint program in “Development studies” with a crafts profile, with higher education institutions in Europe.

The facilities were of a higher standard than the BIFT, the students also having access to computers (at least the ones studying computing).

BRAC Univ + DTC

Advisor Syeda Sarwat Abed in Aarong told me that they were discussing starting a designer education at BRAC University. Someone else mentioned that this might be done in collaboration with the DTC, but Ms Abed mentioned prestigious Western institutions as the FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) in New York City as potential partners.

Training or service Centers
Knowing that the formal design education institutions will use a long time providing the much needed design competence, the idea of training or service centers has developed. The intention is that the producers here can buy short-term services in order to strengthen their design and product development competence.

The Design and Technology Centre, DTC

The DTC started out as a joint project between Dhaka Camber of Commerce and the German Technical Cooperation, the GTZ. Now it is becoming its own legal entity, although financially supported by the GTZ until 2005. By then private enterprises will have to come in as owners.

The German Couple Karin and Franz Bauer are Team Leaders at the DTC. Franz Bauer is an industrial designer having run his own company for twenty years. His specialty is leather design. He claims that the concept of design is relatively unknown in Bangladesh.

The DTC is a facility of design services, selling to potential customers in, primarily, the large industries. Mr. Bauer does not see the crafts sector as potential costumers. Experience has shown that it is not easy to reach the craftspeople, for instance has a textile workshop been postponed because no craftspeople would attend. The craftspeople have no tradition in using a service center for further education.

There is a group of Bangladeshi designers working at the DTC. One of them emphasizes that DTC wishes to establish the industrial design discipline in Bangladesh. The designers also point out that the complexity of a product development is not well known in Bangladesh. The DTC cannot, and will not, offer the fast return that the Bangladeshi companies expect. They are often unwilling to pay for the fieldwork and analysis that is a necessary preparation for the actual design work. Wanting to be an alternative to the brief “designer visits” so well known in Bangladesh, the DTC wishes to supply training as well as designs.

Mr. Bauer wants the DTC to be a platform for cooperation with donors like Norad on design projects. He finds the idea of working with industrial design students intriguing, as his teaching experience from German design schools has taught him how important it is for the students to experience the hard process of changing production processes. Mr. Bauer thinks that the DTC can play an important role implementing research results, i.e. in the field of textile.

Ecota + Traidcraft

Tradecraft, a UK-based fair trade organization, is working on a proposal for a service center, supplying:

Market information

Product development

Males promotion

ECOTA, a fair trade network in Dhaka, has expressed interest in this idea.