Bangladesh is home to 4,200 garment factories, but those companies are now taking steps to shed the “sweatshop” label, the AFP reports.

Consultants like Rodney Reed, a British businessman who has been living in Bangladesh for three years, are helping the factories become socially responsible and treat garment workers well:

With signs that the runaway growth in the garment trade is beginning to slow because of the global financial crisis, Reed said Bangladesh could set itself apart from other garment-producing countries by becoming a fair-trade hub.

“In the same way we see organic coffee and organic vegetables in the UK, people pay more money for products if they are environmentally sustainable,” Reed said, adding that fair trade could become vital to the country’s survival as a leading garment producing nation.

“At the moment Bangladesh’s only advantage is its cheap labour, but that may not always be the case. Someplace else will come along offering cheaper labour, most likely sub-Saharan African countries, and shops will send their orders there instead,” he said.

Read more about the pros and cons of overseas sweatshop labor here.