The First Industrial Safety Forum in Dhaka organized jointly by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) was held on Thursday.

Think tank CPD brought together national safety regulators, policymakers, academics, employers, workers’ representatives, civil society members and development partners under the ISF to discuss the development of a national industrial safety framework for Bangladesh.

“The infrastructure and institutional preparedness for industrial safety are still at emerging stages in the country. Particularly the building safety, occupational safety and health and environmental sustainability remain outside the core activities in most industrial sectors,” ISF meeting opined.

The ISF aims to inspire and engage the relevant stakeholders to establish a sustainable and transparent industrial safety framework, which will act as a foundation for ensuring workplace safety in all industries across Bangladesh.

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Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun attended the forum as the chief guest.

The minister noted that the forum provided a knowledge sharing platform for the stakeholders to collaborate for ensuring a safe working environment in industries.

Md. Ehsan-E-Elahi, secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, stated that the ministry has formed two tri-partite committees to review and amend the labour law to maintain decent workplaces and industrial safety.

“For inclusive growth of the country, the government and the public bodies need to work with the employers and the civil society collaboratively”, said Elahi.

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Tuomo Poutiainen, Country (Bangladesh) Director of ILO said, “ISF provided a

platform to discuss, engage and collaborate for improving workplace safety and health in all economic sectors across Bangladesh. We hope the recommendations and commitments shared at the forum will drive the process of developing a national industrial safety framework.”

Speaking at the forum Ardashir Kabir, president of Bangladesh Employers

Federation (BEF) said this will help create interaction to work together for the common cause of raising industrial safety standards.