Like many textile mills and brands around the world, the Bangladesh textile industry is grappling to meet the pressing demands from environmental laws and increasing pressures from NGOs, particularly in the areas of water pollution and the discharge of hazardous chemicals. In what experts describe as a water pollution disaster in one of the world’s most densely populated and environmentally fragile places, its city’s river systems in Dhaka have reached alarming levels, threatening agriculture, fisheries and public health.
Hong Kong Nicca Chemical Ltd. is contributing proactively engaging textile mills and brands in Bangladesh to reduce environmental footprint and to drive sustainable excellence to compete in the global market.
Bangladesh’s textile industry is the world’s second-largest apparel exporter after China. This industry is having double digit growth year on year basis. The industry also accounts for 20% of Bangladesh’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with more than three-quarters of its total exports heading to Europe and the US.
NICCA Chemical Co. Ltd is a leading global leader in developing sustainable, high performing processing and effects chemicals that have low environmental impact. NICCA co-organized a technical seminar entitled ‘Activate your life using sustainable and innovative chemicals’ with its agent JB Chem-Bridge Ltd. on 23 March in Dhaka.
The event brought together more than 100 representatives from textile mills, brands, retailers, NGOs and academic institutes to discuss the challenges and opportunities they collectively face in the apparel and textile industry. Covering a multitude of issues ranging from the ZDHC and innovative environment products and solutions to meet the industry’s toughest challenges, each topic was designed to help create value-add for the respective textile segments.
Kotaro Takeuchi, GM of Bangladesh Liaison office was there in welcoming all the guest from the factories.
Biswajit Banik, Senior Country Manager for Nicca who is having huge experience in working for other leading multinational company, lead the technical seminar as master of the ceremony.
“The contents are comprehensive, insightful and up-to-date, providing textile stakeholders with an excellent overview of some of the industry’s challenges and Japanese expertise and technical know-how. R&D capabilities along with its innovative products and solutions further boosted our confidence that NICCA is the Go-To Partner to help us meet our environmental targets,” commented Danny Leung, Executive Director of South China Bleaching and Dyeing Factory Limited.
“Creating a sustainable textile value chain is one of the top priorities in the textile industry. As one of the global leaders in addressing industry challenges with sustainable products and solutions meeting economic and ecological needs, NICCA is committed and well positioned to help the industry address these challenges. NICCA will continue to invest and collaborate with various stakeholders in Bangladesh to help the industry minimize their environmental footprint and to meet sustainability targets to compete in the global market,’ said Atsu Kobayashi, Managing Director, Textile Division, Nicca Chemical Co., Ltd.
Asia is a key growth market for NICCA Textile Division. In the last few years, NICCA have invested $30M in the region. These include world-class distribution centers and facilities located in China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan.
In addition, a state-of-the-art NICCA Innovation Centre in Fukui, Japan was also established to complement all the facilities across the globe and for all the customers. These measures firmly positions NICCA as a truly competitive global and regional chemical manufacturer and demonstrate its confidence in the growth of the textile industry in Asia.
