Revving up leather sector

BANGLADESHI leather sector could exploit its full potential in the overseas markets if the processing units had met the international environmental safety standards. The bottleneck could be removed long ago by making the leather units or tanneries environment-friendly, if only those could be relocated to their designated site in Savar with a Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) installed to treat their discharges. Oddly though, the project for relocation including setting up of the CETP has been plodding along since 2003, thanks to the foot-dragging by both the government and the owners of the leather manufacturing units.  
It is worthwhile to note that up until now,  Bangladesh has been able to get hold of only a miniscule share, a mere 0.005 per cent, of the total global market for leather goods worth US$230 billion. Our annual export of leather and leather products is hovering around US$ 1 billion mark.
To get over of this stagnation, the government and the factory owners should expedite the process of relocating the tanneries from Hazaribagh to their designated location in Savar keeping in mind the EU's deadline to make our leather goods toxin-free by the year-end.   Though the government has decided to bear 80 per cent of relocation cost, still it would do well to consider the tannery owners' plea for a soft loan for the purpose. But this must be weighed up against some of the tannery owners' defaulting on the loans contracted to buy raw hides.