Bangladesh urges factory owners to give cheap food to workers

from The Straits Times

DHAKA - BANGLADESH'S finance minister has urged company owners to spend some of their profits to subsidise food for workers to defuse mounting tensions over soaring prices.

'It is the time for the rich to help the poor of the society,' Mr Mirza Azizul Islam said late on Friday, according to Bangladesh's state-run BSS news agency.

'The poor will benefit if private companies distribute subsidised food to their workers,' Islam said.

Existing corporate culture 'should be changed for the welfare of the deprived', he added.

Bangladesh, which has a population of 144 million, is one of the world's poorest nations with 40 per cent living under the poverty line.

Islam's call come amid rising tensions in the key garments industry, which accounts for three-fourths of the country's annual exports. Last week, 20,000 textile workers rioted over low wages and high food prices.

Rice prices have doubled in Bangladesh in the past year, in part due to devastating floods and a massive cyclone in 2007, forcing millions to depend on the government's free and subsidised food distribution system.

The basic minimum monthly salary of a garment worker is 25 dollars, while a kilogramme of rice costs 35 taka (50 cents) - normally enough to feed a family of four for one day.

The majority of Bangladeshi households spend nearly 70 per cent of their income on food. The government has moved to import more rice and sell it at subsidised prices on the open market to tame food inflation.