Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday urged both the local and international entrepreneurs to take steps to ensure labour rights alongside creating more job opportunities.

She also urged them to take steps for the development of environment in their respective industries, ensure increased welfare of their workers, their occupational health and safety, and employ more women and physically-challenged people.

The Prime Minister made the request while inaugurating the Dhaka Summit on Skills, Employability, and Decent Work at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital.

She hoped that development partners will increase their cooperation in improving the efficiency of workers, improving reliability and creating decent work environment as they did in the past.

Mentioning that achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a big challenge for Bangladesh, the Prime Minister said increasing the supply of skilled manpower, creating new employment and income earnings capacity will help us alleviate poverty and other social indices to the desired level. "I firmly believe we'll also be successful in achieving SDGs with our united efforts."

About export, Hasina said, "We should diversify our products and expansion of market for our future economy and jobs."

Referring incentives to increase the demand for products, "Only incentives are not enough, we also need to invest more in capital and technology and human resource development." 

Putting emphasis on the value addition of products she said, "If we improve our garment products design and market those by ourselves with self-initiative, we’ll be able add more value."

To create new jobs, the Prime Minister said, her government has been working relentlessly with new initiatives to encourage trade facilitation, reducing the cost of capital, infrastructure and uninterrupted power supply. 

She also said labour-intensive industrial sector is vital for creating employment opportunities and making the production of goods and services competitive through reducing their cost skill development of manpower is a must. 

At the same time both the demand and wages of intending migrant workers could be increased through enhancing their skill, she added.

The Prime Minister said there is no alternative to training in order to develop skilled manpower, and her government had formulated National Skill Development Policy 2011 through good coordination of all types of vocational and technical educations run by the government, private and NGOs.

Besides, the government has been implementing various programs aimed at improving education and skills such as technical and vocational education and training system reform, action-tailored and internationally recognised training system and new workplace skill development training.

Hasina said technical and financial assistance from ILO and other development partners are playing a significant role to implement the government's long-term technical and vocational education and training reform program.

The Prime Minister mentioned that Safety and Inspection Department has been strengthened to ensure the better working conditions of factories. 

The workers in Export Processing Zones got the right of forming Trade Union. The Bangladesh Labour Act has been amended to protect labour's rights, she added.

Hasina said the national capacity will have to be achieved by skilled labour force as well as through developing skilled managers and skilled professionals.

The university-level education system must be conducted as per the need of industry and universities will have to start making skilled managers with proper education and training systems, she added.

ILO DG Guy Bemard Ryder, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam, State Minister for Labour and Employment Ministry Md. Mujibul Haque (Chunnu), Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Md Siddiqur Rahman, High Commissioner Benoît-Pierre Laramée, Switzerland Ambassador to Bangladesh Christian Fotsch, Secretary General of International Organization of Employers Linda Kromjong, Director, Strategy and Operations, Human Development Practice World Bank Group Amit Dar and National Coordination Committee Workers Education (NCCWE) Chairperson Shah Muhammad Abu Jafar also spoke on the occasion.