The UK government has declared that it will donate 18 million pounds as aid for the safety and skills training of low-skilled Bangladeshi factory workers.
The announcement has been made in the wake of the factory collapse that killed over 1,100 people.
British Conservative Party politician Alan Duncan has made the announcement as he met the survivors of the world's worst industrial disasters at a Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed in Savar, the district where the collapse took place, the BBC reports.
According to the report, some UK aid will also be spent on enforcing building standards and making factories fit to their purpose.
Duncan also urged the British cloth retailers to 'assume responsibility' of the mode and method in which their products are manufactured.
Raising the issue of garment workers' conditions at a meeting, Duncan said that the Department for International Development was ready to fund for initiatives enabling buyers, manufacturers, workers, non-governmental organisations and the government of Bangladesh to work together and agree a set of common compliance standards.
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Stating that the collapse should be taken as a 'wake-up' call as it indicates the need to bolster the safety standards in Bangladesh factories, Duncan said that the factory fires and the scale to which the disaster took place is devastating.
Duncan further said that the garment industry in Bangladesh needs to be turned into a long-term development success, where safety standards must be put alongside the rapid growth in the sector.
The report said that the collapse sparked global outrage with the authorities confirming 1130 deaths and 2500 injured out of which 2,437 could be rescued.
The report also said that the collapse highlighted unsuitable working conditions, low wages and safety standards in the country's garment sector where the building housed many operations producing low-cost garments for Western companies.
