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Export-oriented companies, including the ready-made garment sector in Bangladesh, may lose existing access to global markets after 2010 if they do not comply with international standards of social responsibility, said trade experts Monday.
 
Maintaining social responsibility standards is also a precondition for finding new export opportunities, they said.
 
To be set by the International Standardisation Organisation, ISO 26000 on social responsibility will come into force in 2010. If exporting companies do not conform, many global buyers will forego their products.
 
"A wholehearted commitment to ISO 26000 by the export oriented businesses in Bangladesh will be helpful to their gaining access to new international markets and to retain their market shares against competition from SAARC countries," said a paper prepared by Reed Consulting Bangladesh, presented at a conference Monday.
 
"Social responsibility is now a vital component of international trade. Any country that wants to survive in the international market must embrace social responsibilities," British High Commissioner Stephen Evans told the 'National Social Responsibility Stakeholder Consultation Conference on ISO 26000'.
 
According to ISO guidance, companies will need to concern themselves with the social impact of production to sell their products abroad.
 
This means complying with international standards on human rights, labour welfare, corporate governance, environmental protection, community involvement and consumer rights, among others.
 
The ISO will hold a global conference in Santiago, Chile, in September this year on social responsibility standards for companies worldwide. Member countries will present proposals, which will be taken into account to complete an international set of standards for social responsibilities.
 
Monday's conference was held at the Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution (BSTI). BSTI will eventually monitor the implementation of ISO 26000 in Bangladesh.
 
Industries secretary Sheikh Enayetullah, BSTI director general Md Azmal Hossain and Rodney Reed of Reed Consulting Limited also addressed the conference.

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