What’s Behind the BGMEA and BKMEA’s Leadership Shakeups?
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the South Asian nation’s apex trade group, has a new president. So does its smaller counterpart, the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Both of the outgoing office-bearers had ties with ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, whose sudden flight to India in early August triggered a virulent backlash against members of the formerly ruling Awami League, including arrests, forced resignations and instances of vigilante justice that have killed nearly 30 members and their families.
Still, politics weren’t cited as the reason for the resignations, both of which happened over the weekend. SM Mannan Kochi, who also served as general secretary of the Awami League’s Dhaka City North arm, stepped down as president of the BGMEA following a five-month run on Saturday for what he described as personal reasons and the need for long-term medical treatment. Salim Osman, a former Jatiya Party lawmaker whose brother, Shamim Osman, belongs to the Awami League, likewise pleaded physical illness when left the helm of the BKMEA after 14 years on Sunday. They will be replaced by BGMEA vice president—and, until recently, acting president—Khandoker Rafiqul Islam and BKMEA general body member Mohammad Hatem, respectively.
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“Our first priority will be to restore the foreign buyers’ confidence on Bangladesh as law and order is improving gradually,” The Business Standard quoted Islam as saying during the emergency meeting on Dhaka that unanimously appointed him as the BGMEA’s new chief. “We want to assure our buyers that the country is the safest place for sourcing apparel items.”
The BKMEA is taking a slightly different tack. Its first order of business, Hatem said, will be to work with the central bank to resolve financing issues that have stymied manufacturers’ liquidity and with the National Board of Revenue to speed up customs procedures for imports. “We will also work with the government to resume talk with EU trade negotiations to continue preferential trade benefits in that trade zone,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Ready-made garments, which account for roughly 85 percent of Bangladesh’s $55 billion in annual exports, have been critical to the country’s economic success. But the sector has been pummeled by crises on multiple fronts: gas supply shortages, surging inflation, spiraling freight rates due to fighting in the Red Sea, riots in the streets that led to factory closures and, despite the appointment of a caretaker government, an uncertain political future that could cause international brands and retailers to wobble on future orders. Some 30,000 containers are currently stranded at Chattogram Port because flooding from monsoon rains has rendered roads impassable. Finished goods also cannot reach the docks, meaning suppliers may have to resort to the vastly more expensive air freight to meet delivery deadlines.
Bangladesh is also on track to graduate from the United Nations’ least-developed countries list by the close of 2026, which could see it lose trade benefits from the European Union and other countries under the World Trade Organization’s Generalised System of Preferences. The WTO estimates that the nation could shed 14.3 percent of its exports, worth $7.8 billion annually, as a result of forfeiting its preferential market access.
All of this is more important than who’s sitting at the top of the BGMEA or BKMEA, said Munir Mashooqullah, founder of apparel supply chain firm M5 Group. He’s heard “strong” rumors that the government is considering withdrawing favorable loan facilities such as the Export Development Fund, which would strike a major blow to garment manufacturers.
“The BGMEA or BKMEA are not government or legislative bodies, so change or chaos in their leadership will not derail the industry,” Mashooqullah said.
But Kochi, who is the subject of several criminal complaints, including one for murder, according to local media, will continue to wield influence over the organization’s 4,000 members as a director on its board, said Faisal Samad, a former BGMEA vice president who has been calling for the board’s dissolution because of what he said were “rigged” elections in March. He said that the BGMEA’s existing leaders have produced neither strategies nor policies to maintain Bangladesh’s position as the second-largest exporter of garments after China, which has eroded Western buyers’ trust.
“The best way forward, since the country is going through a reform, would have been a reformed BGMEA,” Samad said. “This was the time to bring things into perspective and get the organization in order. Instead, they chose to reshuffle their board and present themselves as the new way forward. That’s just taking old wine and putting it into new bottles.”
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