‘Data Universe’ of Bangladesh’s RMG Enterprises: Key Features and Limitations

Abstract

In the backdrop of limited data on the key manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh, this paper reviews the data situation of the readymade garments (RMG) sector. Under the CPD-RMG Study, a database called ‘data universe’ of the RMG enterprises in Bangladesh has been prepared. While compiling data from available nine datasets of public and private organisations, a number of weaknesses were found which include incomprehensiveness, incompleteness and inconsistencies of the datasets. The study devised a unique analytical tool to identify the information of factories which are operational. It identified a total of 3,856 factories are in operation, with almost 3.6 million workers, of which about 53 percent is female and 47 percent is male workers. About 98 percent of these enterprises are located in four districts: Dhaka (38 percent), Gazipur (28.9 percent), Chittagong (16.1 percent) and Narayanganj (14.7 percent). The study proposes to develop a comprehensive database for the RMG enterprises by including information on production, products, machineries, export markets, management professionals, foreign professionals, workers, workers’ organisations and compliance-related issues.