A Wall Street Journal article (9-17-13, p. B5) revealed that Bangladesh remains clothing retailers’ #1 choice for producing garments.  Companies such as Walmart, Hennes & Mauritz AB, Gap Inc., and Inditex SA still prefer Bangladesh, despite slow progress improving safety conditions at its manufacturing plants.  Bangladesh is preferred over Vietnam and Cambodia, since production capacity and price appear to trump safety and labor.  China remains the world’s largest garment producer with more than $150 billion in annual exports, but that country’s minimum wage is now $156 per month, four times the $39 monthly base rate in Bangladesh.  Bangladesh’s neighboring country, Myanmar, has moved up rapidly on the preferred garment manufacturing spots, behind China, Italy, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Cambodia in that order.  Bangladesh has more than 5,000 garment factories, more than double the number in Vietnam and 20 times as many as in Indonesia.