Reihan Salam - The Global Garment Manufacturing Ecosystem

The casualties at Rana Plaza have prompted a far-reaching discussion of the economics and the ethics of the global garment manufacturing supply chain. Earlier this week, Keith Bradsher of the New York Times described the scramble among retailers to identify new low-cost garment manufacturing locations in the developing world, a scramble that has taken on new urgency as Bangladesh’s reputation has been tarnished.

Indonesia, which has a GDP per capita (PPP) two-and-a-half times as high as that of Bangladesh and a government that has improved markedly in recent years, has been gaining momentum. Bradsher reports that many elite brands had harbored concerns about Bangladesh’s reliance on high-rise factories, a reflection of rising land values in prime manufacturing districts, which are in turn a reflection of transportation bottlenecks that threaten the reliability of shipments.

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/348634/global-garment-manufacturing-ecosystem-reihan-salam