The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Acting President Shahidullah Azim has said industry-academia collaboration is imperative to meet the future challenges of the apparel industry, especially in the context of fast fashion and disruptive technologies.

Partnerships between the industry and academia would be instrumental in producing a qualified and competent workforce for the industry, he added.

The BGMEA acting president was speaking at the programme "Towards a Meaningful Industry-Academia Partnership: A Talk on RMG sector's impact on Bangladesh's Rapid Growth and Future Prospects" organised by the Department of Marketing and International Business of the North South University (NSU) Wednesday.

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The business dynamics in the fashion industry is changing rapidly where the use of technologies is increasing to meet the changing demand of consumers for diversified fashionable products.

"The industry-academia linkage is important because our growth depends on our ability to move to diversified products which require complex skills. The job market has to be ready with the required skills to meet contemporary production techniques, product sophistication and fashion trends," Shahidullah said.

"From the BGMEA we have also taken several initiatives and one such initiative is the internship programme which will start soon. We would love to collaborate with NSU to involve young talents and let them calibrate their capabilities with the needs and pace of the industry."

Professor Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, dean of the School of Business and Economics, Professor ABM Rashedul Hassan, treasurer, Mohammad Tayeenul Hoque, chairman of the Department of Marketing and International Business, Ishrat Jahan Synthia, senior lecturer at Department of Marketing and International Business, of NSU were also present.