Lakshmi Bhatiya, a representative of US buyer GAP, based in Bangkok, said the company will buy garment products from China, Cambodia and Vietnam if the Bangladesh garment industry owners did not improve working conditions.

General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) Neil Kearney said poor infrastructure, factories' record on workers' health and safety and working hours in Bangladesh are "appalling."

"The government's indifference to the victims of the Spectrum Garments disaster also damaged Bangladesh's image abroad," he said after a meeting with Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina at her Dhanmondi office.

Kearney led a four-day mission in Bangladesh since June 5 to see what was needed to be done in the aftermath of the Spectrum Sweater Factory collapse in Savar.

The mission's purpose was to examine the issues relating to the payment of compensation, structural investigations of all multi-storey factories and arrangements for total compliance with the national and international labour standards.

Kearney was accompanied by the Social Compliance Initiative members, including the Cotton Group of Belgium, GAP, Inditex of Spain and Karstadt Quelle of Germany, which together represent a large share of Bangladesh's apparel exports.

Expressing dissatisfaction at the government's inaction to address the problems of working conditions and poor infrastructure, Kearney said 90 percent factories could disappear and buyers may shift their business to other countries if the working environment in factories [in Bangladesh] is not improved.

He told reporters that the April 11 collapse of the nine-storey garment factory is not a unique incident and warned that many other factories may face the same disaster.

"Providing humanitarian assistance during the disaster is not enough. It is the responsibility of the government to find out how many workers were killed and injured and how many needs medical treatment," he said, emphasising the government's role in assisting the workers who lost job in the accident.

Two other members of the delegation were Maren Boehm and Javier Chercohes.

Awami League leader Faruk Khan MP, Syed Abul Hossain and Habibur Rahman Siraj assisted the opposition leader during the hour-long meeting.

Later, Faruk Khan told reporters that the AL chief requested the delegation to see that garment workers do not suffer due to the government's mismanagement. "We also told the delegation that Awami League will continue political pressure on the government to develop the working condition in the garment sector."