Bangladesh: first national GOTS seminar highly successful

More than 170 delegates from five countries attended the flagship event by GOTS in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 23rd November, 2016 - National Seminar on GOTS Certification - including International Brands & Retailers, manufacturers & exporters, representatives from Govt of Bangladesh, certification bodies, professionals from fields of testing, chemical compliance, media, trade associations, NGOs, academics, consultants and so on. The theme of the conference was –‘Business Case for Sustainability with Organic Textiles’.

3,800 facilities GOTS certified worldwide

Today, out of the more than 3,800 facilities GOTS certified worldwide, more than 400 are in Bangladesh. This is the 5th highest number of GOTS certified facilities worldwide. In his welcome address, Sumit Gupta, GOTS Representative in Bangladesh & India appreciated Bangladesh Textile Industry for their ambitious target to achieve the figure of 50 Bn USD in RMG exports and encouraged the industry to use sustainability and GOTS as a tool to help them achieve this goal.
“I was delighted to see tremendous interest in GOTS and sustainability among the textile industry in Bangladesh. 

The fact that this seminar had a full house testifies to the efforts that the industry is making in moving towards a cleaner future. Delegates showed great enthusiasm during the Q&A sessions asking experts their doubts, giving suggestions and even sharing good practises they follow”, Rahul Bhajekar, GOTS Director Standards Development and Quality Assurance summed up.

Four sessions of the conference addressed the various dimensions of GOTS as an instrument of sustainable supply chain management. Key results of the sessions:
•    commitments from brands on and off the dais to increase their share of GOTS certified organic textiles in their respective supply chains.
•    need to create more training and awareness among staff and workers for better implementation of standards at the workplace.
•    though sometimes challenging, sustainable textile production, compliant with international standards like GOTS, is the way to go for long term business gains.