DHAKA: US ambassador to Dhaka Dan W Mozena on Saturday predicted that leather industry will turn into the second driving force of Bangladesh economy after readymade garments.

Mozena also put emphasis on the fulfillment of workers’ basic rights as well as better working environment.

The US envoy was talking to the media while visiting the leather industrial hub in Hemayetpur area of Savar, on outskirts of Dhaka.

Mozena said that the tannery-owners have to pay attention on the health condition of the workers, their living places, and wages to make progress in leather industry.

According to the US envoy, the gap between the workers and the owners is huge. In particular, better working environment is necessary for the workers and if the owners can achieve it (environment) ultimately they will be benefited.

Once I told Bangladesh would be the emerging tiger of Asia, which is no longer a dream it is a reality now, the envoy added.

Mozena visited the effluent treatment plant project and several privately-owned leather factories and exchanged views with the industry entrepreneurs at the project office.

Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) chairman Ahmed Hossain Khan, Leather Industrial City-Dhaka project director Sirajul Haidar, and Apex Tannery managing director and also lawmaker AKM Rahmat Ullah, among others, accompanied Mozena during the visit.

BDST: 1326 HRS, DEC 06, 2014