Workshops and Field Visits Organized by CREATE in January 2023

Series of Workshops were organized at Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka, in connection with the CREATE Research project’s work-packages and research design, field visits and data collection plan. Workshops discussed the concepts of circular Economy and their applications in apparel industry and the research designs. The aim of the workshops was to do the ground works prior to full-scale data collection and field works.

Project leader Dr. Mohammad Rana, Associate Professor at Aalborg University Business School, presented the concepts, dynamics and research design for work package-1 &2 in the workshops.

CREATE researchers, divided into two teams, have worked on respective work package to design the plan and data collection protocol.

Professor Dr. Amanullah, Professor Dr. Imranul Hoque, Dr. Melita Mehzaben, Dr. Shobod Debanath, Prof. Dr. Shafiul Alam, Dr. Naznin Sultana Chaity, Dr. Samsad Afreen Himi, Syed Tajuddin Ahmed attended the workshops and field visits.

After the workshops, a serious of company and field visits including the interviews with stakeholders were organized by CREATE. This includes visits to garment factories, Jhoot clusters (textile waste clusters), and recycling factories (e.g., Recover).

However, beside cluster and factory visits, CREATE team led by Dr. Mohammad Rana met the president of BGMEA, Faruque Hassan, and Director Ms. Vidiya Amrit Khan at their corporate office and discussed issues, challenges, and prospects of circular economy in Bangladesh’s apparel industry.

President Mr. Faruque Hassan thanked Dr. Rana for commissioning the research and capacity building project and stressed that the findings from the research project would help build appropriate policies and strategies for transitioning to a circular economy and capturing higher value in the global value chain.  He further added that BGMEA would provide all sorts of supports and cooperation to make CREATE project effective and fruitful in Bangladesh.

Activities that were organized between January 30 to February 7, 2023, are:

• Workshops on Research design on work-packages: 30 January -2 February 2023
• Cluster visits: 3 February
• Jhoot Cluster, recycle company (i.e., Recover) and Factory visits (large, medium, and small), + interviewing the key stakeholders: February 3-6, 2023.
• Meeting President of BGMEA and discuss: February 7, 2023.

Pictures of the Field Visits: