On the 18th of September, a meeting was held in Paris between the representatives from the BGMEA and members of the Accord Steering Committee where many issues were discussed. An important principle that was agreed upon was the initiation of dialogue for an efficient transition process to ensure a sustainable scenario post June 2018. In case the smooth transition of hand over of the responsibility of Accord to a national regularity authority does not happen by June 2018 all the relevant stakeholders including the government will sit and discuss further course of action beyond 2018.

Furthermore:
1. We will work towards an agreement on the conditions under which the Accord would be able to handover its functions to a national regulatory body, on the basis that
until such conditions are met, the Accord will continue to operate
 
2. We agree that the Accord will participate in a transition process in order to support and advise the GOB in the development of the National Regulatory Body.
 
3. The BGMEA and the Accord reaffirm their commitment to mutual cooperation in order to accelerate the progress of remediation.
 
4. The Accord and the BGMEA reaffirm their commitment to continue dialogue in the spirit and consideration of the overall benefit of the industry and its workers.
 
We feel that all parties felt extremely positive about the meeting in Paris and great progress has been made in improving the working relationship between the BGMEA and the Accord.
 
The Steering Committee of the Accord is scheduled to be in Dhaka towards the third week of October and at that time we will also hold joint meetings with the Government of Bangladesh to ensure that the handover of the functions of Accord to a National Regulatory mechanism is expedited.
 
We believe that together, since 2013, the Accord and the BGMEA have made enormous strides in the improvement of safety standards in our industry and a credible, transparent and effective mechanism will be in place for the necessary handover of these functions by the time the Accord expires next year.