Are Subcontractee Enterprises Able to Upgrade? Insights from a Case Study

Abstract

This Policy Brief presents a case study of a subcontractee enterprise which is not a member of any trade body but enlisted in the DIFE. The Brief highlights the benchmark level of social compliance and technological standards of this enterprise in order to understand its potentiality in undertaking necessary economic and social upgrading activities to make the enterprise sustainable. The CPD-RMG Study conducted enterprise level survey in nine subcontractee enterprises listed in the DIFE. The selected subcontractee enterprise has been chosen because of its overwhelming dependence on subcontracting activities as well as sharing sufficient information for the analysis. In most cases, the performance of this subcontractee enterprise has been compared with the enterprises having direct export contract (Tier 2). The performance of enterprises with direct contract has been captured from an enterprise-level survey carried out in 226 sample enterprises during 2017-2018 by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). A pseudo name has been used for the sample enterprise, viz. Norasmiy Savdo Ltd. (NSL). Norasmiy Savdo is a dialect of Uzbekistan indicating informal trade.