The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have recently signed a strategic partnership agreement to advance the “Improving Transparency for Sustainable Business” (ITSB) initiative, strengthening sustainable business transparency in Bangladesh’s ready-made garment sector.
Continuing a collaboration that began in 2025, the agreement gives institutional form to BGMEA and GRI’s long-running ITSB initiative.
As a strategic partner, BGMEA will lead on transparent and responsible business conduct in the garment sector. The partnership will build organisations’ capacity to identify and disclose the environmental, social and economic impacts of business using the GRI Standards.
Credible sustainability reporting is extremely important for a sector connected to international markets. It meets the requirements of buyers, investors and regulators while supporting long-term decision-making.
The ITSB initiative is a capacity-building platform bringing together all stakeholders, including small, medium and large industrial enterprises. Training, webinars, workshops and dialogues will be held under it.
Domestic organisations will also get the chance to present the realities of the garment sector, and their recommendations, to GRI’s global standard-setting board.
The Sustainability Nexus (SusNex) is working as the training and outreach partner for the initiative in Bangladesh.
The initiative has already drawn a strong response at programmes held in May and July 2026, attended by about 300 delegates. May’s “masterclass” gave practical grounding in environmental and social impact, while July’s roundtable and “Masterclass-2” focused on economic impact, regulatory links and assessing report quality from an investor’s perspective.
On the partnership, GRI chief of standards Bastian Buck said it is a major step in strengthening transparency and impact-based reporting in Bangladesh’s garment sector. Through the ITSB initiative, he said, GRI is keen to work directly with businesses, regulators and stakeholders to ensure the practical application of the GRI Standards, so that the real experience of the domestic garment sector reaches international platforms and the sector’s accountability and competitiveness in the global market increase further.
Wasim Zakaria, chairman of BGMEA’s standing committee on the Responsible Business Hub and sustainability reporting, said Bangladesh’s garment industry has already won global recognition in environmental sustainability, safety and responsible production. “Our aim now is to measure and disclose that success properly against international standards. This joint initiative with GRI will make factories skilled in modern sustainability reporting,” he said.
Such transparency will not only increase the confidence of buyers and investors but also help strengthen organisations by identifying their own risks and new opportunities.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report