Dhaka, May 23 -- Industry stakeholders and business leaders on Saturday strongly demanded the formation of a dedicated National Leather Board to serve as a regulatory and guardian body for the country's struggling leather sector.

Alongside the demand for a centralized board, they urged the government to ease loan facilities for raw hide preservation, simplify the import of essential chemicals, and remove existing barriers to international compliance certification.

The demands were raised at a seminar titled "Finding Ways to Overcome the Existential Crisis of the Leather Industry," organized by the Leather Industry Development Foundation of Bangladesh at the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) auditorium in the capital's Purana Paltan on Sat...