Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus met the chief executive officers of top clothing retailers at the Consumer Goods Forum in Tokyo on June 11-13.
Prof Yunus was a keynote speaker at the conference, Yunus Centre said in a statement yesterday.
He invited the CEOs of the top retail companies for a private meeting with him on the sidelines of the conference to discuss the situation of garment industry in Bangladesh.
The CEOs had an hour-long exclusive meeting with the Nobel laureate and briefed him about their support for Bangladesh.
Prof Yunus elaborated his proposals on voluntary international minimum wages for garment workers for each garment producing country and the use of “Happy Workers’ Tag” for offering workers’ welfare programmes by independent social business companies.
The CEOs showed positive interest in both the subjects. He urged the CEOs to join hands to make Bangladesh a highly attractive country for sourcing garment products and help bring back the companies which left the country.
He emphasised the social impact of garment industry in Bangladesh in terms of women empowerment along with its impact on poverty reduction.
Michael Duke, CEO and president of Walmart; Georges Plassat, CEO and president of Carrefour; Gareth Ackerman, chairman of Pick and Pay Stores Ltd; Tadashi Yanai, chairman and CEO of Uniqlo, and Motoya Okada, CEO of AEON Ltd, Japan, attended the meeting.
Source: The Daily Star
